The past few weeks have certainly been a challenge for us all as we grapple with the constant rhetoric and bluster from the new American president. Has it really only been two weeks since his inauguration?
I don’t often write columns, but felt compelled to write this one, especially after Premier David Eby and most of the other leaders across the country are calling for a strong response to the tariff threat from us all. The response is simple: buy Canadian, whenever and wherever possible.
We must answer the call. We must consider our personal decisions and habits when it comes to supporting those who support us, by buying Canadian from local businesses.
The businesses here on the Sunshine Coast survive against a host of competitors from south of the border. Most noteworthy are the American companies that were represented by their CEOs at the inauguration, right behind the president. Yes, you all saw them there, leaning into the new president’s agenda: Amazon, Google, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), X (formerly Twitter) to name a few. These are the richest companies in the world and they are all American.
Premier David Eby is calling Trump’s tariffs exactly what they are –– a fight we didn’t start, but one we’ll still likely face head-on. B.C.’s response was clear in its call for us all to do what we can to support Canadian businesses when spending our Canadian dollars.
However, just last year, soon after Meta removed all news from its platform, Eby and the B.C. government doubled down with Meta in its expenditures to ensure that critically important information gets out to you all during crises, like wildfires. This is exactly the kind of information that we’ve being distributing to the public for decades. Our industry wasn’t consulted on that deal. We should have been.
It is time that our provincial government follows its own advice. Stop spending our hard-earned tax dollars with American digital giants. Same goes for our federal government. There is still a strong local news industry in Canada, against all odds. We are Canadian-owned and operated and we support causes in every community across this country, and yet the governments support our American competitors. It is time to change.
The B.C. and federal governments need to support Canadian media. By moving all their millions of dollars of advertising to Canadian local media (in print and digital), they would show us the leadership we need to make the same choices. It is time to “buy Canadian.”
Local municipal governments, local businesses and our local MLAs and MPs, have been the ones leading by example, prioritizing support for local newsrooms. They understand the importance of keeping small businesses running and of keeping vital information available within the community. So, kudos to our local mayors, councils, MLAs and MPs for getting it right, for putting their money where their mouth is when it matters most.
While we all hope that we can avoid a trade war with our neighbour, it is obviously time we all take stock in our situation. We are very susceptible to the whims of the new president and the economy he commands. We need to look for every opportunity to support Canadian businesses in everything we do. We can no longer allow our reliance on trade with America to meet our needs as a sovereign country.
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