our American cousins   

    Yes, there are individuals and companies in the U.S.A. who are doing amazing eco-friendly things and creating wonderful products.  And there are U.S. consumer groups, eco-activists, trade unions and others  fighting (“struggling in the belly of the beast,” as we used to say) against the litany of regressive Trump assaults on the environment and human rights.  Good on them.  Let’s hope they win.

    That doesn’t mean we should support their products over competing Canadian goods of similar quality.  In fact, all things being equal, the overwhelming argument is still in favour of Canadian products.

    No doubt, Burlington, Vermont’s Seventh Generation (since 2016 owned by Unilever) and Racine, Wisconsin’s Mrs. Meyer’s (now, along with Drano, Shout, Pledge, Windex, Saran Wrap, Ziplock etc. owned by S. C. Johnson, the wax people) make eco-sound household cleaning products.  Both brands are offered in Toronto at Whole Foods and Canadian Tire — alongside locally-owned-and-made Eco Max (Markham, Ont.) and Nature Clean (Oakville, Ont.).  A fine example of the our freedom to choose.

    First off, the Canadian-made products offer jobs and taxes paid locally.  And in cases like this, the U.S. brands have ten times the market open to them in their own country. That’s why they’re more likely to grow to get snapped up by big multi-nationals!  And it’s where Canadian start-ups don’t have much of a chance to even show up.  

    When these U.S. products with their big corporate ownership get Canadian distribution (an add-on ten percent of their market) they have a lot of where-with-all to compete with Canadian products that don’t have the U.S.-market advantage or the parent company’s deep pockets and finely tuned existing distribution and PR systems in Canada.   That’s always a challenge for any Canadian start-up, even when it gets on the shelves of major cross-Canada retailers.   The same is true for on-line sales, especially given the shipping costs involved.

    There are, of course, hundreds of independent U.S. health and eco-friendly products on the shelves of our independent health stores.  But still, let 'em enjoy their own big market, if there's a Canadian alternative.

    No U.S.-made product can be totally eco-friendly, coming from a country that won’t sign the Paris agreement on climate control, increases its use of coal-fired energy, opens national parks to oil and mining companies, is dismantling its Environmental Protection Agency  — and attacks Canada for the way we manage our environmental affairs!