go local — go Maple 

    It  makes a big difference when something we buy — from our food and household supplies, to the software that runs our hospitals, transit systems, banking, pretty much anything we consume — is made in Canada by a Canadian company that employs Canadians, pays taxes to Canada, invests its pension funds in Canada, and uses its profits to expand in Canada. 

    It makes a difference that your Canadian-made toothpaste and pickles are sold by neighbourhood bricks-and-mortar retailers who hire your neighbours and pay local taxes that help pave your streets and pay for transit, schools, police, fire departments, the social safety net.  

   It makes a difference that governments we elect set and supervise the environmental, business and labour standards of the companies that make what we buy.

    When buying Canadian is not an option, Dudley Does Right will look at alternatives.  A good example is our growing economic relationship with Europe — especially after President Trump’s snub of the EU, in contrast to Canada’s new free-trade treaty.  Add to that the pro-immigration, human rights, free-trade and pro-environment stands of European countries, unlike the U.S.A.’s growing  isolationism. 

   There are complications. Take the case of major household appliances. Canada was once a net exporter of washing machines, refrigerators and the like.  These days, "Buy Canadian" advocates are pretty much out of luck.  Nobody makes that stuff here. We have to make decisions — such as comparing the impact of shipping a washing machine driven by truck from a “right-to-work” state in the U.S.A. to the impact of one shipped on a CN train from Mexico, or a Chinese container ship from Malaysia.  A brief web check of Whirlpool, which has been named Canada’s Manufacturer of the Year by the Canadian Manufacturers Association, shows that every Whirlpool product sold here appears to be made in the U.S.A. or abroad. Its website offers a paltry few job postings in Canada, mostly in sales.  On the other hand, on the plus side, Whirlpool wins big energy-savings and service ratings awards! 

    There are people who in these Trump times would settle for New Zealand family-owned Fisher & Paykel —  it makes its North American models in Mexico — rather than support a U.S.A. company that moved its factories out of Canada after NAFTA.  When I phoned New Zealand for a replacement part for my old Fisher & Paykel washer, the person taking the call pronounced the last letter of the alphabet "zeed".  A nice compromise.  (The part showed up pretty quickly, too.)

    Now, with the new trade deal with the EU, it may be possible to import European-made products, like Bosch, rather than their U.S. or Mexican manufactured versions — which some people say are inferior to the European, but, under NAFTA, have been much cheaper here.  It's the sort of thing Dudley Does Right checks out.

    Same kind of considerations with bicycles. Finding a Canadian-assembled bike with a Canadian-made frame (most other components are an international potpourri on all bikes) restricts you pretty much to an aluminium frame.  For that, Devinci — a praiseworthy Quebec producer of aluminum-frame bikes is pretty much it.  What if you want a bike with a steel frame, to better take the bounces of your city’s potholed streets, for instance, and assembled locally?  I chose Urbane Cyclist because it creates local jobs in my neighbourhood.  Their steel frame, incidentally, is designed by them, but cast in Taiwan.

    Our professional and citizen contributors, with cooperation from supportive manufacturers and retailers, will help unwind the web of complexity around purchases like these.

    Did you know you can buy Canadian diamonds that are imprinted to show they are not the infamous 'blood diamonds' sold by African warlords and murderous dictators?  Stornoway, a Canadian company, with support from the Quebec government and indigenous people in Northern Quebec, is ramping up eco-friendly production every day, finding treasure in lands that other mining companies rejected.  De Beers Canada, part of the international group, has opened up several mines as well.  Where do you find these Canadian diamonds?  Dudley will tell you.