Dear editor,
In 2022 Canadians imported $779.2 Billion of merchandise. That figure increases at 16-19.9% annually. Saying WOW, what a amazing figure?
This includes all items we need, want and aspire to, such as fresh greens and fruit, machine parts, automobiles, clothing, toys etc. I point this out because a thought occurred to me long ago, a itch that I cannot stop scratching.
What of those items included can be made her in our homeland, or even in North America? What sort of financial and economic boom would we experience if your clothing, electronics, scooters, car parts were all made in Canada/North America? In 2023 Canada’s two way goods and service trade index went well above the 1.9 Billion dollar mark. Much of the revenue returned to manufacturers in Asia and elsewhere. The cost and profit on the shirt you bought for $25.00 was spit between manufacturer in China, who shipped the shirt to Canada’s ports for $3.75, then the importer and retailer split the difference along with some other participants. Years ago the owner of Urban Behaviour Retail showed me a shirt selling for $55.00 Canadian in his stores. At that time these landed in Vancouver for $3.99 each. There was a 50 per cent cost applied to the small amount for transportation, distribution, merchandising and retail needs. The rest was profit.
So $55 minus $6 equals $49, and this allows the retailer to promote sales with discounts of up to say 50 per cent. The retailer still makes $24.50. Since most people are looking for a quality product priced well, importers have enjoyed a massive profit whirlwind for many decades. Local and North American Manufacturers lose these sales because their products are priced higher, due to our labour, material and transportation rates being higher.
Image if you buy a locally made shirt instead, or buy local products instead of those from far away? What will you accomplish?
- End our reliance upon imported products
- Help create employment for your community and national neighbours
- Since items don’t need to be shipped half way across the world, your costs and carbon footprint would be much lower.
- A national pride could arise, in buying, consuming and using products and services made here.
- A movement of local economies and markets can and will develop.
- Customer Satisfaction in North American products will certainly be on the up swing. A question or demand regarding a product made here would not be answered by someone far away, but locally.
Nations that we normally import from would have to develop their own national economy, offering their own products to their population. Chinese or Indian Workers could enjoy the very product they make, instead of having all good items exported. The very nature of Henry Ford’s genius was found in his firm offering their products to their locality and their workers, helping to create a middle class, and bringing the working class up along with it.
To import something when that same thing could be created here, is a destructive anti-social thing. It is like saying to those who cannot find a full time job, or who are concerned about our environment “to buzz off, your unimportant, insignificant”.
The time has come where the purveyors of anti-social and wasteful capitalism need to be recognized, isolated and taxed for their selfish profiteering. Our world’s natural resources are limited, while these corporations and individuals greed and selfishness seem unlimited.
Steven Kaszab
Bradford
