Yay for Canada! All of those US brands, not one in my home. You’ll be better off without them.
Wait…
French’s ketchup is Canadian but French’s mustard is American???Okay I’m not Canadian (or USian for that matter), but it’s common for big companies to have many production facilities and many product lines, so similarly packaged and named products are made in different countries and nobody pays any attention. Common example in my country is that since like two decades ago, Põltsamaa Felix was acquired by the Norwegian company Orkla, they’ll make some things here in their Estonian facility (in Põltsamaa, the town the company was named after) and then they’ll make some in Latvia or Lithuania, some in Sweden, etc. Unless you look at the package AND it states the country, you’ll have no idea.
This list is the equivalent of French’s “proudly made in Canada” Ketchup response to the Heinz boycott from a couple years back when they’ve decided to close their Ontario factory. French’s still being just another US company, that did not close it’s Canadian plants at the time.
Also it’s full of shit products and seems to push galen’s stuff mostly, when there’s so many smaller, local alternatives.
Many American brands I’ve never even heard of. And Nestlé is Swiss, not from the US.
Please provide a list then.
Seriously. I understand you waving the flag pointing out the lowblaw connection (I noticed it too and I haven’t shopped at lowblaw or their counterparts more than a dozen times in the last 2 years), but people need alternatives.
Even ONE option would be helpful, otherwise you are just making this shit seem even more hopeless.
How can I provide you a list of local products specific to your area? I live in the more French part of Montreal, Le Plateau, and everything is full of products from France and Quebec. Highly irrelevant to what you likely have in say Toronto.
I used to live in the Junction and would frequent three non-galen stores in the area (a local butcher, Sweet Potato and Stari Grad) and never encountered either the listed US or Canadian brands, unless I had to go to the no frills in the area for cheap TP.
This list is simply stupid. It’s an infatuation with big consumer brands and outdated products. Very typical of North America.
Just try. Instead of whining uselessly. A single Canadian made product you enjoy. You don’t have one? Then you are the problem.
You don’t want people buying big name brands. You say everyone else is stupid. Fucking pull your weight then.
I’m sitting on the can and I can see ‘true earth’ brand toilet cleaner is made in Canada. They have laundry soap and dish soap too.
And I know my fancy Lush shampoos and stuff are super local, if you can afford it.
And just in case laundry detergent isn’t on the tariff list I have Okazu miso chili oil on my counter at all times.
And Matty Matheson has a brand of kraft dinner that’s pretty dang good and not that much more expensive than KD.
So what about you? Gonna keep whining about a shitty list or are you gonna post something helpful? If everyone else in this thread did the same thing we’d have something to work with.
I think their point was “don’t just buy Canadian, but local” which means the unless you live near each other, their recommendations won’t help. This is generally more impactful advice.
But I appreciate your point that we want to make it easy to avoid American products, to lower the bar so more people do it; so listing national brands makes that much more useful.
Their point was to whine. If we need to buy local and OP’s intention is not just to piss and moan they could give a single example, or link to a list, or start a little data base.
Even just list some tips to start figuring it out for yourself, like "go to your fridge and take out the most expensive/most used items. Find the label and figure out where it’s from. If it isn’t from Canada do a google search for “local mayonnaise” or “Ontario made cheese”, or “Toronto hot sauce” and start looking for alternatives. They aren’t the single only person living in Montreal on Lemmy, and even if they were, their recommendation could lead others to search in a different way for what they need.
I’m not disagreeing with anything said, I’m trying to encourage the whiners to also contribute, as I have been as I whine about whiners. It should be a requirement.
I think there is still value in their reminder that Galen Weston isn’t forgiven, despite being Canadian; so don’t get so caught up in our passion to switch to Canadian brands that we end up giving our money to someone nearly as bad.
I still don’t really think them listing a single example (or many) would prove anything, or be meaningfully useful. I wouldn’t mind hearing some of their experience in looking for local, so people know what to expect, but I don’t think we need to be upset that they didn’t.
In other words, I think they are contributing, even if their tone is perhaps not ideal for moving people to action.
Montreal’s a pretty big city. If you’re willing to do it, sharing your local expertise can help a lot of people.
Nestle deserves to be boycotted for so many reasons.
Absolutely.
Madeinca.ca looks to be a good resource for this kind of thing.
As someone in the US, I will be avoiding large US brands as much as possible as well. All the pain that nazi cockgoblin has and is going to cause makes me really sad.
I wouldn’t president’s choice or any other loblaws either. unless rob loblaws month never ended the by all means go for it.
Rob Loblaws month never ends. I wish I could find frozen avocado somewhere else, do you know any other store that carries it? That’s the one thing I’m stuck on. I mostly shop at the local Polish grocery store.
I buy bagged whole avocados like crazy when they go on sale, cube them and place them on parchment paper lined tray spaced out and put that in the freezer. once they are frozen solid bag them up in a ziploc and chop the next cpuple avocados ans repeat. They have to be frozen not touching each other or they form a giant clump.
Ok that’s a good idea. Do you cut them up when they are firm or when they are soft? I def could do this.
I like them medium but anywhere before they turn brown
As an American I really miss Liberté yogurt, its been over a decade since I saw it in stores.
Yeah, that was good stuff.
Fantastic list! Where’d you find it?
For anyone scrolling, add Rustica to the frozen pizza list. Siwin for excellent dumplings. Cheemo for perogies. I’ve just found them in the past few months and they’re all really well made.
Someone put it on Facebook. Also https://madeinca.ca/
I shop at my local Polish grocery store. I have no idea what some things are but it feels much better to support them.
I know it’s not a real option for many, but for those who can afford to I’d also recommend shopping local for groceries as much as possible. We need to stand together in the face of these tariffs, but I don’t love the idea of Loblaws and co. standing to gain so much from the struggles of the public yet again.
Check out local grocery stores and smaller chains like Co-Op if they operate in your area for Canadian made goods. Look and see if there’s a local farmers market you can buy staples like eggs and produce from. It’s the little guys that are likely to face an existential threat from all this international non-diplomacy.
Absolutely! This is the year where I finally sign up for a CSA. (I’m not a good cook and have always been a bit intimidated but apparently most come with recipes and honestly, all the AI has made me a lot more confident in my ability to “find” a few recipes with whatever random ingredients.)
I am not as against AI as your typical lemmy user, but I think LLMs generating recipes might sometimes not work the best? Especially if you are limiting the ingredients. If your on-hand ingredients typically wouldn’t be combined, it might hallucinate and spit out the recipe for some food crime creation. Maybe you’ve had a different experience though?
Oh, definitely not worth blindly trusting but I’ve had pretty good success when grabbing whatever is on sale at the grocery store or in excess in my pantry.
That being said, I use it as a planner, not in a “what can I make with what’s on hand.” So, a CSA box would have the stuff that I’d plan around! I haven’t tried more off the cuff but I rarely cook that way.
I know basic food safety so I’m only worried about a bad meal but of the last ten meals I made based on ai, a couple are going in my standard rotation and all but 1 worked out well. (The 1 being just fine.)
Have to make sure it’s a real farmers market though and not one that just buys bulk and resells calling them farm produce, often at a considerable markup.
I already shop almost exclusively at the local Polish grocery store. I have no idea what some of the products I’m buying are haha.
Probably mostly just kiełbasa, twaróg and kapusa. A good diet.
Wait, what do you mean YOPLAIT?!? That brand still exists? I remember seeing it in Spain during the early 90s and then disappearing there. I thought it was a Spanish brand since I haven’t seen it outside that country. TIL.
Yoplait was the gourmet stuff we couldn’t afford back in the 80’s
It’s still here in Canada.
yoplait canada is not owned by general mills anymore. they closed on the deal to sell it back to the french company they bought it from just last week. src
Can we please not call Tim Hortons Canadian?
Tim Hortons is a fully owned subsidiary of Restaurant Brands International. Restaurant Brands International is a public company traded on the NYSE and TSE with its headquarters in Toronto. A Brazilian investment company 3G Capital owns 32% of Restaurant Brands International via “3G Restaurant Brands Holdings LP”.
Does that make it a Canadian company? Who the hell knows. It sure doesn’t feel like it, even if it does technically have a Canadian HQ. I guess theoretically it means they pay their corporate tax in Canada. But, realistically, they probably are using various tax dodges to avoid paying much of anything.
IMHO they stopped being Canadian when they switched to hiring the cheapest TFW’s they could, while championing how Canadian they are in all their advertising. Being Canadian is more than having your HQ in Toronto and sticking a maple leaf on everything.
Plus their food sucks now.
Sorry I didn’t make the list, that is dumb.
Who did make it? What is its source?
Nor is Robin Good and Four roses
Exactly. Restaurant Brands which owns Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes is a US company. Tim Hortons is garbage anyway.
According to Wikipedia they’re headquartered in Toronto
In 2014, Burger King bought Tim Hortons in a merger that formed Restaurant Brands International; a primarily American company, though headquartered in Toronto alongside Tim Hortons. Both then and now, RBIs primary assets/interests are in America.
Ah, good to know. Thanks.
Their name is ‘restaurant brands’? that’s so blandly corporate evil
It’s actually Brazilian.
Is that why they’re so smooth?
Well if there’s one place you don’t want hair, it’s in your coffee. Hang in there up there we’re rooting for you just south of the border.
As an ashamed American, I really dig the solidarity and support you guys are showing with your alternative products and boycott lists!
Like Letterkenny says, if there’s one thing you Yanks have sorted, it’s your shopping. I will very much miss clothes shopping there because that really was a big savings.
thank you! together we stand, divided we fall!
Old Dutch is the best. I grew up on the rippled sour cream and onion. I never got the lays appeal…
Old Dutch All Dressed is really good too! I get the sour cream and cheddar every once in a while. It’s weirdly addictive. I also grew up on their ketchup chips.
Sour Cream and Cheddar is definitely their best imo.
old dutch was always what we had when i was a kid. mom wouldn’t settle for anything less. it had to be old dutch chips in the box.
it is a minnesota company but their canadian operations is huge, with manufacturing facilities across the country.
They also distribute Hawkins Cheezies… Canadian made
For mayonnaise, if you’re in Quebec, I strongly recommend MAG.
I quite enjoy seeing “President’s Choice” on this list.
Is it prescient, poignant or just apt?
à propos
