I’ve been doing the ‘buy Canadian’ thing for a few years now. I actually enjoy the game of trying to find cool folks making cool stuff and I know that there are others like me just like there are people who lack the time or inclination to do the research.
I also think it can be tricky for people looking at starting a business to be able to identify a need.
So what’s a product you don’t know of a Canadian alternative to?
Personally, it’s cast iron cookware. Meyer makes great stainless stuff, but there isn’t a single foundry making cast iron cookware in Canada. I’ve actually started emailing a few to see if I can find a Canadian foundry that would be willing to batch produce cast iron skillets. Finding a local brand already doing it would be a LOT easier!
Tech hardware. Networking equipment, firewalls, switches, access points etc
We legitimately need a crown corporation or semething to start developing critical hardware and software free of American influence.
How much of that is made in America? Isn’t most of it manufactured overseas?
Yeah, “designing” would probably be the better word. Very little in terms of hardware is actually developed there. But in terms of Microsoft, Android, iOS, those are American.