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As a Canadian, "Made in the USA" is currently a mark against, and I would only consider buying that product if it was absolutely the only remotely reasonable op

by 0xTJ 1y ago

As a Canadian, "Made in the USA" is currently a mark against, and I would only consider buying that product if it was absolutely the only remotely reasonable option.

dismalaf 1y ago
This. We're car shopping right now and not only searching for non-US brands but also specific models not made in US factories.
internetter 1y ago
You would rather "Made in China" over "Made in the USA?"
- jszymborski 1y ago
  China hasn't threatened to make Canada a Chinese province so given no friendly alternative, I'd 100% buy the Chinese model.
  - like_any_other 1y ago
    Given Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, that is possibly the worst example you could have chosen.
    - jszymborski 1y ago
      First, it's not an example I'm replying directly to the question. Second, as a Canadian, I'm primarily concerned with the sovereignty of my country. Given both powers are expansionist, I'll take the one that isn't personally threatening me. As mentioned in my previous comment, given a choice to deal with a non-expansionist, free democracy, I'd much quicker patronize them.
      - like_any_other 1y ago
        China is operating police stations in your country [1,2], subverting your elections [3,4], and got you to pass a trade agreement tilted wildly in their favor [5,6]. If you're worried about real sovereignty, your top current threat is China, that will happily pull the strings while letting you have sovereignty in name only. [1] Why are Chinese police operating in Canada, while our own government and security services apparently look the other way? - https://web.archive.org/web/20220926120429/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-why-are-chinese-police-operating-in-canada-while-our-own-government/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220926120429/https://www.thegl... [2] Canada police probe alleged Chinese 'police stations' in Montreal - https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-police-probe-alleged-chinese-police-stations-montreal-2023-03-09/ https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-police-probe-a... [3] CSIS documents reveal Chinese strategy to influence Canada’s 2021 election - https://web.archive.org/web/20230217155126/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-china-influence-2021-federal-election-csis-documents/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230217155126/https://www.thegl... [4] CSIS documents reveal a web of Chinese influence in Canada - https://web.archive.org/web/20230227134241/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/the-decibel/article-csis-documents-reveal-a-web-of-chinese-influence-in-canada/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230227134241/https://www.thegl... [5] Canadian governments are locked in for a generation. If Canada finds the deal unsatisfactory, it cannot be cancelled completely for 31 years. China benefits much more than Canada, because of a clause allowing existing restrictions in each country to stay in place. Chinese companies get to play on a relatively level field in Canada, while maintaining wildly arbitrary practices and rules for Canadian companies in China. - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fipa-agreement-with-china-what-s-really-in-it-for-canada-1.2770159 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fipa-agreement-with-china-wha... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada-China_Promotion_and_Reciprocal_Protection_of_Investments_Agreement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada-China_Promotion_and_Rec...
        jszymborski 1y ago
        I'm under no illusion that the government of the People's Republic of China is a friend to Canada nor do I think any of my comments make it seem that way. I reiterate my commitment to patronize non-imperial free democracies. I have a long history of fighting against equivocations of the US and China under previous administrations, but over the course of less than 100 days the US has declared literal economic war against all its allies and has made it clear that it is hostile to free democracies the world over.
    - rs186 1y ago
      I can't wrap my head around how your comment is relevant at all.
    - vel0city 1y ago
      Any of those places a place in Canada?
  - bigstrat2003 1y ago
    Nor has the US. One particular person in the US has talked about that. I don't particularly see how it's justified to take it out on a country of 300 million people when the vast majority of them aren't responsible for what you object to.
    - vel0city 1y ago
      It's only the president of the United States vaguely threatening war against another country. It's not like his opinion matters or anything.
    - bcrl 1y ago
      The leader represents the country because the votes of the citizens put him in power. Nobody else in the US government with a similar amount of power has rejected or denied the 51st state rhetoric. This is what worries Canadians: nobody is stopping the American president. There are no checks and balances.
    - vanattab 1y ago
      It's not just one guy it's THE one guy that really matters. And a majority of voters picked that guy.
      - alphabettsy 1y ago
        I guess I’ll be the “technically” guy and point out that’s not true. Trump has more votes than any other candidate, but the majority of voters were for Harris or 3rd party.
        burnerthrow008 1y ago
        Huh, you're right[1]. Trump only got 49.80% of the popular vote. Of course, Kennedy (who is in Trump's cabinet, and seems broadly aligned with the MAGA agenda) got another 0.49%... and Oliver (the MAGA-adjacent Libertarian candidate) got another 0.42%. Hardly the ringing endorsement of "American's didn't really pick the guy" that Canadians want to hear. [1] https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/2024presgeresults.pdf https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/2024pres...
  - metalman 1y ago
    and a whole lot of stuff coming from the US to Canada, is just transhipped made in China products, so Canadians could do well from establishing new supply chains......aaaaand reversing that trend:)
  - mikrotikker 1y ago
    China is the Nazi Germany of our time. USA has a long long way to go before that no matter how much you hate the orange man.
- gertop 1y ago
  Yes.
- dghlsakjg 1y ago
  At this point, that is a pretty popular sentiment in Canada.
  - TheAlchemist 1y ago
    Not only in Canada but in the whole Western world. Travel to the US, Tesla (which is very closely associated to Trump, via Musk) are already collapsing at an unprecedented speed. The only comparable period would be Covid lockdowns. The difference is that in 2020 this was expected to be somewhat temporary, even if the duration was unknown at the time, while this time is much more sentimental - it will take decades to unwind it. It's like trust - it takes a long time to build, but you can destroy it all in a second. And Trump did just that.
- tumsfestival 1y ago
  Absolutely.
- zeagle 1y ago
  Between a trade war, abuse by border services, threats of annexation, economic instability taking a dump on my retirement and cost of living. For sure. I have conferences, memories in Hawaii, family in the US and I ain’t going. I actually hope life in the US becomes more uncomfortable for the average person for a while so the ideology driving MAGA becomes persona non grata for a generation or two. I’ll vote the only way I can: my money. -a slighted Canadian.
- rsynnott 1y ago
  Well, I mean, China isn't currently threatening to invade Canada, so there's that.
  - apercu 1y ago
    I’m a dual citizen. Either we will never have elections again because America is a theocratic dictatorship, or diplomatic and economic relations will be restored. It is only through gerrymandering and propaganda that the current clownshow is in power. Oh, and racism, that contributed too.
    - burnerthrow008 1y ago
      Don't forget to add wide-spectrum dissatisfaction with the economy and incompetence of the incumbent party's campaign team to your list. Harris ran a very left-of-center campaign in the 2020 primary election, and soundbites from that were played on repeat in 2024 (some of which didn't age well and some of which were always unpopular in certain circles). That that would happen was an easily foreseeable consequence of making her the candidate. The incumbent party could have chosen a different candidate if they had made an earlier decision to not try to re-elect the president. You can't cure the disease if you get the diagnosis wrong.
      - 0xTJ 1y ago
        Trump should have been an automatic loss for the republicans,. regardless of if the Democrats were led by a literal clown who promised free balloon animals for all. He was openly fascist-leaning and repeatedly demonstrated his lack of care for the truth.
      - apercu 1y ago
        We all know that the powers that be ($$) will not allow allow for any meaningful change, and that the right is simply obstructionist when they don't have the White House, so it shouldn't matter who the Democrats ran. The fact that even after the first Trump presidency (a disaster for anyone that isn't extremely wealthy) enough people voted for a criminal idiot surrounded by incompetent sycophants is still absolutely incredible to me. I'm still in shock even to this day.
- 0xTJ 1y ago
  Yes, 100% absolutely.
HamsterDan 1y ago
[flagged]
matthest 1y ago
I don't blame you. Our next president is going to have send you a Statue of Liberty or something to patch things up.
- johnnyanmac 1y ago
  I'd rather the next president spends most of their term making sure this kind of crisis can never happen again. We can send the statue of Shame the term after that.
hedora 1y ago
As an American, I’m doing what I can to boycott stuff made in red states. I can and do pay up to 2x more for blue state stuff (which is typically higher quality, to be honest), and go imported otherwise.
- bag_boy 1y ago
  What kind of stuff made in red states are you boycotting?
  - hedora 1y ago
    Easy things: Alcohol (beer, whiskey) Harder things: Food brands that support trump. JB Smucker. Whole Foods (owned by amazon). Apple (look at the recent #appletoo NLRB scandal.) Really hard things (looking for an alternative): Amazon (not red state, but Bezos is pretty bad). Also, any big-ticket discretionary purchases are getting delayed, bought from someone else or bought used.
- pixxel 1y ago
  [dead]
mvdtnz 1y ago
I absolutely won't be buying anything made in America, regardless of price. America is now an ideological enemy of the liberal Western order.
mikrotikker 1y ago
I will still buy American made stuff for sure no matter who is in power there. It doesn't matter to me. The quality of the product is what matters to me.

by 0xTJ 1y ago

As a Canadian, "Made in the USA" is currently a mark against, and I would only consider buying that product if it was absolutely the only remotely reasonable option.

dismalaf 1y ago

This. We're car shopping right now and not only searching for non-US brands but also specific models not made in US factories.

internetter 1y ago

You would rather "Made in China" over "Made in the USA?"

jszymborski 1y ago
China hasn't threatened to make Canada a Chinese province so given no friendly alternative, I'd 100% buy the Chinese model.
- like_any_other 1y ago
  Given Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, that is possibly the worst example you could have chosen.
  - jszymborski 1y ago
    First, it's not an example I'm replying directly to the question. Second, as a Canadian, I'm primarily concerned with the sovereignty of my country. Given both powers are expansionist, I'll take the one that isn't personally threatening me. As mentioned in my previous comment, given a choice to deal with a non-expansionist, free democracy, I'd much quicker patronize them.
    - like_any_other 1y ago
      China is operating police stations in your country [1,2], subverting your elections [3,4], and got you to pass a trade agreement tilted wildly in their favor [5,6]. If you're worried about real sovereignty, your top current threat is China, that will happily pull the strings while letting you have sovereignty in name only. [1] Why are Chinese police operating in Canada, while our own government and security services apparently look the other way? - https://web.archive.org/web/20220926120429/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-why-are-chinese-police-operating-in-canada-while-our-own-government/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220926120429/https://www.thegl... [2] Canada police probe alleged Chinese 'police stations' in Montreal - https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-police-probe-alleged-chinese-police-stations-montreal-2023-03-09/ https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-police-probe-a... [3] CSIS documents reveal Chinese strategy to influence Canada’s 2021 election - https://web.archive.org/web/20230217155126/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-china-influence-2021-federal-election-csis-documents/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230217155126/https://www.thegl... [4] CSIS documents reveal a web of Chinese influence in Canada - https://web.archive.org/web/20230227134241/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/the-decibel/article-csis-documents-reveal-a-web-of-chinese-influence-in-canada/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230227134241/https://www.thegl... [5] Canadian governments are locked in for a generation. If Canada finds the deal unsatisfactory, it cannot be cancelled completely for 31 years. China benefits much more than Canada, because of a clause allowing existing restrictions in each country to stay in place. Chinese companies get to play on a relatively level field in Canada, while maintaining wildly arbitrary practices and rules for Canadian companies in China. - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fipa-agreement-with-china-what-s-really-in-it-for-canada-1.2770159 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fipa-agreement-with-china-wha... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada-China_Promotion_and_Reciprocal_Protection_of_Investments_Agreement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada-China_Promotion_and_Rec...
      - jszymborski 1y ago
        I'm under no illusion that the government of the People's Republic of China is a friend to Canada nor do I think any of my comments make it seem that way. I reiterate my commitment to patronize non-imperial free democracies. I have a long history of fighting against equivocations of the US and China under previous administrations, but over the course of less than 100 days the US has declared literal economic war against all its allies and has made it clear that it is hostile to free democracies the world over.
  - rs186 1y ago
    I can't wrap my head around how your comment is relevant at all.
  - vel0city 1y ago
    Any of those places a place in Canada?
- bigstrat2003 1y ago
  Nor has the US. One particular person in the US has talked about that. I don't particularly see how it's justified to take it out on a country of 300 million people when the vast majority of them aren't responsible for what you object to.
  - vel0city 1y ago
    It's only the president of the United States vaguely threatening war against another country. It's not like his opinion matters or anything.
  - bcrl 1y ago
    The leader represents the country because the votes of the citizens put him in power. Nobody else in the US government with a similar amount of power has rejected or denied the 51st state rhetoric. This is what worries Canadians: nobody is stopping the American president. There are no checks and balances.
  - vanattab 1y ago
    It's not just one guy it's THE one guy that really matters. And a majority of voters picked that guy.
    - alphabettsy 1y ago
      I guess I’ll be the “technically” guy and point out that’s not true. Trump has more votes than any other candidate, but the majority of voters were for Harris or 3rd party.
      - burnerthrow008 1y ago
        Huh, you're right[1]. Trump only got 49.80% of the popular vote. Of course, Kennedy (who is in Trump's cabinet, and seems broadly aligned with the MAGA agenda) got another 0.49%... and Oliver (the MAGA-adjacent Libertarian candidate) got another 0.42%. Hardly the ringing endorsement of "American's didn't really pick the guy" that Canadians want to hear. [1] https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/2024presgeresults.pdf https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/2024pres...
- metalman 1y ago
  and a whole lot of stuff coming from the US to Canada, is just transhipped made in China products, so Canadians could do well from establishing new supply chains......aaaaand reversing that trend:)
- mikrotikker 1y ago
  China is the Nazi Germany of our time. USA has a long long way to go before that no matter how much you hate the orange man.
gertop 1y ago
Yes.
dghlsakjg 1y ago
At this point, that is a pretty popular sentiment in Canada.
- TheAlchemist 1y ago
  Not only in Canada but in the whole Western world. Travel to the US, Tesla (which is very closely associated to Trump, via Musk) are already collapsing at an unprecedented speed. The only comparable period would be Covid lockdowns. The difference is that in 2020 this was expected to be somewhat temporary, even if the duration was unknown at the time, while this time is much more sentimental - it will take decades to unwind it. It's like trust - it takes a long time to build, but you can destroy it all in a second. And Trump did just that.
tumsfestival 1y ago
Absolutely.
zeagle 1y ago
Between a trade war, abuse by border services, threats of annexation, economic instability taking a dump on my retirement and cost of living. For sure. I have conferences, memories in Hawaii, family in the US and I ain’t going. I actually hope life in the US becomes more uncomfortable for the average person for a while so the ideology driving MAGA becomes persona non grata for a generation or two. I’ll vote the only way I can: my money. -a slighted Canadian.
rsynnott 1y ago
Well, I mean, China isn't currently threatening to invade Canada, so there's that.
- apercu 1y ago
  I’m a dual citizen. Either we will never have elections again because America is a theocratic dictatorship, or diplomatic and economic relations will be restored. It is only through gerrymandering and propaganda that the current clownshow is in power. Oh, and racism, that contributed too.
  - burnerthrow008 1y ago
    Don't forget to add wide-spectrum dissatisfaction with the economy and incompetence of the incumbent party's campaign team to your list. Harris ran a very left-of-center campaign in the 2020 primary election, and soundbites from that were played on repeat in 2024 (some of which didn't age well and some of which were always unpopular in certain circles). That that would happen was an easily foreseeable consequence of making her the candidate. The incumbent party could have chosen a different candidate if they had made an earlier decision to not try to re-elect the president. You can't cure the disease if you get the diagnosis wrong.
    - 0xTJ 1y ago
      Trump should have been an automatic loss for the republicans,. regardless of if the Democrats were led by a literal clown who promised free balloon animals for all. He was openly fascist-leaning and repeatedly demonstrated his lack of care for the truth.
    - apercu 1y ago
      We all know that the powers that be ($$) will not allow allow for any meaningful change, and that the right is simply obstructionist when they don't have the White House, so it shouldn't matter who the Democrats ran. The fact that even after the first Trump presidency (a disaster for anyone that isn't extremely wealthy) enough people voted for a criminal idiot surrounded by incompetent sycophants is still absolutely incredible to me. I'm still in shock even to this day.
0xTJ 1y ago
Yes, 100% absolutely.

HamsterDan 1y ago

[flagged]

matthest 1y ago

I don't blame you. Our next president is going to have send you a Statue of Liberty or something to patch things up.

johnnyanmac 1y ago
I'd rather the next president spends most of their term making sure this kind of crisis can never happen again. We can send the statue of Shame the term after that.

hedora 1y ago

As an American, I’m doing what I can to boycott stuff made in red states. I can and do pay up to 2x more for blue state stuff (which is typically higher quality, to be honest), and go imported otherwise.

bag_boy 1y ago
What kind of stuff made in red states are you boycotting?
- hedora 1y ago
  Easy things: Alcohol (beer, whiskey) Harder things: Food brands that support trump. JB Smucker. Whole Foods (owned by amazon). Apple (look at the recent #appletoo NLRB scandal.) Really hard things (looking for an alternative): Amazon (not red state, but Bezos is pretty bad). Also, any big-ticket discretionary purchases are getting delayed, bought from someone else or bought used.
pixxel 1y ago
[dead]

mvdtnz 1y ago

I absolutely won't be buying anything made in America, regardless of price. America is now an ideological enemy of the liberal Western order.

mikrotikker 1y ago

I will still buy American made stuff for sure no matter who is in power there. It doesn't matter to me. The quality of the product is what matters to me.