Buy Canadian Vegans

By now, buying Canadian is a real movement.

Reddit keeps showing me posts from r/BuyCanadian. Some of the comments in that sub remind me a lot about discussions surrounding veganism.

A lot of posters are proposing going full vegan. If there’s any hint of US ownership, you must totally avoid the product. The means MEC – not Canadian – because it’s owned by a US-based hedge fund. Old Dutch Potato chips – not Canadian – it is a subsidiary of the US brand.

If buying Canadian is about mitigating economic harms, then IMHO going full vegan is useless at best and maybe harmful at worst.

If a company is solely staffed by Canadians, uses Canadian ingredients, that’s basically fine. Sure percentage of profits are sent back to the USA as royalties, licensing or franchising fees, etc. But the benefits of employing all those Canadians, paying all those taxes locally, etc. surely outweigh the cost of sending a dues back to the USA.

So most fast food chains are “fine.” Pepsi, Coke, Budweiser, etc bottled Canadian plants, also fine.

I guess I would draw the line at things that are merely repackaged in Canada (like many soups, sauces, etc) and things directly imported from the USA (like produce).