Recently, there has been a push to support Canadian products and local businesses. This is a great movement that I support to help local businesses and lessen their carbon footprint. On a local level, it supports jobs at home, especially small businesses. This is a list of how to support local or Canadian-made products.
Read the Label
For starters, when you buy a product like a food product or clothing item, you should be reading the label already. But if you are curious about which companies are locally sourced, it would say, Product of Canada, Made in Canada and Distributed by, written on the label. There are three meanings of these labels.
Product of Canada means more than 96% of the product is from Canada. For instance, this could be the difference between buying a bag of apples from Canada from the State or overseas. Not only is the carbon footprint lower, but if it’s produced, the fresh fruit would be fresher because when some produce is being shipped to Canada, like oranges, they are shipped green to keep them fresh. And yes, oranges don’t grow in Canada but it’s just an example.
Made in Canada is not only a commonly found label, but it means it’s at least 50% from Canada. This means some of the items to make the product are from other places, while the other 50% of the materials are made in the home country. For example, when someone buys a cake. The ingredients could be from other places to make the pastry. The other label that is similar to Made in Canada would be Fabricated in Canada, which is the same thing. Still, it could be a sweater with threads not necessarily from Canada but outsourced from other places. It can still mean that the item is manufactured in Canada.
And the label Distributed by Canada means that it was packaged in Canada in a distribution centre. But if it’s something like a bottle of water, it would tell you where it is sourced as well.
Go to local buyer’s markets
A guaranteed way to get local products would be a farmer’s market. Get your products directly from the farms themselves.
But other types of markets out there would be retail shopping events like the One of a Kind show and CNE shopping bazaar, where most of the vendors are Canadian with Canadian-made products. People can support small businesses by buying directly from them.
It’s pretty easy now to go on sites and shop for items at the lowest cost possible. Most of the time not a local business. This has been the activity stifles local businesses. If a brick-and-mortar business can’t get people through the doors, it closes. If you like a business, especially a unique business, shop in-store to not only support the business but also have the product in your hand now instead of waiting four to six weeks for the product to arrive. Plus, try to find an interest in Canadian business news to hear about new businesses or acquisitions of Canadian companies that once were thriving and then bought by a marketplace that frequently buys businesses only to run it into the ground and then say Canada is a hard market to break into when none of your ideas appealed to the Canadian market either in products, price, sales and most notably the marketing looking off.
Support local art
Let’s say you are renovating your home, and you are also almost finished with the interior design of a room. You want to buy some wall art to decorate your space to tie everything together. There are painters, sculptors, ceramicists and textile makers who make great work that supports artists and designers at art shows, exhibitions, and online shops.
Support the Canadian Film Industry
The Canadian entertainment industry is small, with most of the jobs being in crew work in camera, sound, gaffer, grip, transportation and production assistant. Most of the jobs in art, production, and direction are in smaller numbers.
There should be more of an interest in Canadian content so that Canadian films and television shows are made in Canada for Canadians. Now, this is painting a complex issue with small details with a big stick, but building homegrown interest in Canadian content and going out to watch films at local film festivals is support.
In short….
We should buy more locally to support local businesses, regardless of what’s going on in the news.
Under The Moonlight 
Opinion
Recently, there has been a push to support Canadian products and local businesses. This is a great movement that I support to help local businesses and lessen their carbon footprint. On a local level, it supports jobs at home, especially small businesses. This is a list of how to support local or Canadian-made products.
Read the Label
For starters, when you buy a product like a food product or clothing item, you should be reading the label already. But if you are curious about which companies are locally sourced, it would say, Product of Canada, Made in Canada and Distributed by, written on the label. There are three meanings of these labels.
Product of Canada means more than 96% of the product is from Canada. For instance, this could be the difference between buying a bag of apples from Canada from the State or overseas. Not only is the carbon footprint lower, but if it’s produced, the fresh fruit would be fresher because when some produce is being shipped to Canada, like oranges, they are shipped green to keep them fresh. And yes, oranges don’t grow in Canada but it’s just an example.
Made in Canada is not only a commonly found label, but it means it’s at least 50% from Canada. This means some of the items to make the product are from other places, while the other 50% of the materials are made in the home country. For example, when someone buys a cake. The ingredients could be from other places to make the pastry. The other label that is similar to Made in Canada would be Fabricated in Canada, which is the same thing. Still, it could be a sweater with threads not necessarily from Canada but outsourced from other places. It can still mean that the item is manufactured in Canada.
And the label Distributed by Canada means that it was packaged in Canada in a distribution centre. But if it’s something like a bottle of water, it would tell you where it is sourced as well.
Go to local buyer’s markets
A guaranteed way to get local products would be a farmer’s market. Get your products directly from the farms themselves.
But other types of markets out there would be retail shopping events like the One of a Kind show and CNE shopping bazaar, where most of the vendors are Canadian with Canadian-made products. People can support small businesses by buying directly from them.
It’s pretty easy now to go on sites and shop for items at the lowest cost possible. Most of the time not a local business. This has been the activity stifles local businesses. If a brick-and-mortar business can’t get people through the doors, it closes. If you like a business, especially a unique business, shop in-store to not only support the business but also have the product in your hand now instead of waiting four to six weeks for the product to arrive. Plus, try to find an interest in Canadian business news to hear about new businesses or acquisitions of Canadian companies that once were thriving and then bought by a marketplace that frequently buys businesses only to run it into the ground and then say Canada is a hard market to break into when none of your ideas appealed to the Canadian market either in products, price, sales and most notably the marketing looking off.
Support local art
Let’s say you are renovating your home, and you are also almost finished with the interior design of a room. You want to buy some wall art to decorate your space to tie everything together. There are painters, sculptors, ceramicists and textile makers who make great work that supports artists and designers at art shows, exhibitions, and online shops.
Support the Canadian Film Industry
The Canadian entertainment industry is small, with most of the jobs being in crew work in camera, sound, gaffer, grip, transportation and production assistant. Most of the jobs in art, production, and direction are in smaller numbers.
There should be more of an interest in Canadian content so that Canadian films and television shows are made in Canada for Canadians. Now, this is painting a complex issue with small details with a big stick, but building homegrown interest in Canadian content and going out to watch films at local film festivals is support.
In short….
We should buy more locally to support local businesses, regardless of what’s going on in the news.
Banner Credit: Photo of food, plant, fruit, and fruits by nrd (@nicotitto) on Unsplash
Useful links
https://madeinca.ca/
https://www.cira.ca/en/resources/news/domains/how-shop-and-buy-canadian/
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