View topic - A Patriot's Guide to Camping During a Trade War

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PostPosted: June 19th, 2018, 7:45 pm 
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I don't really consider this off topic but there did not seem to be a better forum to put it in.

What essential gear is Made in USA?
Will you boycott it?

What is good Made in Canada gear?

Do you care about any of this? Will it change your camping destinations or gear purchases?

I've already curtailed my visits to the USA. Just a few short weeks ago I considered Made in USA to be only a shade lower than Made in Canada. Same for Made in Mexico. Right now Made in USA is below Made in China for me, thanks to Mr Trump's erratic trade war.

Just wondering if anyone else has been putting any thought into such things?

I'd already been looking at buying this saw, and noticed last night that Joe Robinet uses it - Made in Canada
https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5051-337/Boreal-21-Saw


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PostPosted: June 19th, 2018, 9:29 pm 
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My next purchase of technical clothing, merino base layers, outerwear and sleeping bag if I ever need another will be from Taiga. Designed and manufactured in house in Vancouver BC.

https://www.taigaworks.com


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PostPosted: June 20th, 2018, 6:53 am 
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Location: St. Catharines, Ontario
I still prefer to buy Canadian if possible, but I will buy American without hesitation.

I believe the Americans are our brothers and a couple people trying to fuel dissent between the two of us for some political gains is just sad.

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PostPosted: June 20th, 2018, 7:17 am 
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Living in the Niagara Region of Ontario, we are very close to the USA. There are many nice destinations in the US we could travel too. However, the honest truth is that my wife has not wanted to go the the US and spend our dollars there, since the election of Donald Trump. With the onset of this trade war, I'm feeling the same way.

We did travel to PA for one trip this spring, because we wanted to camp, and southern Ontario was getting an ice storm.

I would not say we use "made in" labels to heavily direct our purchasing decisions.


Last edited by rkj__ on June 20th, 2018, 3:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: June 20th, 2018, 7:34 am 
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Location: Winnipeg, MB
I can't think about Donald Trump when deciding to buy gear from Dan Cooke. You should buy the Silky Gomboy anyway. It slips into the side pocket of many packs (including my made in the US CCS barrel pack) and is quickly deployable at a river log jam or on a portage.

https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5054-564/Gomboy-240-Saw---Medium-Tooth

As far as travel goes, I fear that a drop in visitors to any wilderness area opens it up to attack from Trumps administration.

Let the politicians politic and the paddlers paddle.


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PostPosted: June 20th, 2018, 8:07 am 
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I will buy well made equipment from US mfgs where possible. I will continue to reward those companies (especially smaller "cottage' industries" ) who are devoted to making quality gear.

However i will also (and always have) buy good Canadian made gear if avaialble. Suluk46 is a good example of a small Canadian mfg I like.


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PostPosted: June 20th, 2018, 10:25 pm 
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Neil, I 've read somewhere else (don't remember where) glowing recommendations for that Gomboy saw. I carry a Sven saw which I use if I need to, but I'm lazy and often just snap sticks with my hands and other body parts. And I've never tripped with axe or hatchets, though boy, are they trying to make a comeback! Anyway, apologies for thread-jacking here, Prospector, but Neil, would you rely much on the Gomboy, i.e. use it as a primary wood processor, or what? Like the small size and weight!


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PostPosted: June 21st, 2018, 8:36 am 
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You might want to take a look at the priorities, practices and actions of the US based outdoor equipment makers before going too far. Many of them are leading efforts to protect and support natural spaces. You might also want to look at where equipment is really manufactured. I'm not sure MEC sells any MEC branded gear that is made in Canada.

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PostPosted: June 21st, 2018, 9:10 am 
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Problem also is almost nothing is made in Canada anymore.....


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PostPosted: June 21st, 2018, 10:07 am 
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Politics is a ridiculous game played by morons. Don't let them influence your choice of purchasing and travel. I have many good friends in the States, and I'm not about to abandon them because of politics.


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PostPosted: June 21st, 2018, 10:21 am 
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I understand why no one would want to support Trump
but the outdoor industry is one that is supporting open spaces
They sure aren’t getting help from the Feds and are spearheading resistance to the orange dickhead
In some cases it’s working
The cottage industry owners suffer. I don’t know any who love the ape
I’d always buy local if it’s a quality product and I sure miss Bill Ostrom


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PostPosted: June 22nd, 2018, 8:44 am 
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IIRC, an IPSOS poll done last week showed that about 70% of Canadians will avoid buying American if they possibly can. And the Prime Minister has said that vacationing Canadians should stay in Canada, sort of hinting something about where $$$ should be spent.. But didn't say anything about Americans avoiding vacationing in Canada, esp with the greenback being worth more than the loonie.

IMHO (i really don't shop much) avoiding American buying is going to be difficult with the likes of megamonster American-owned multinationals like Walmart, McDonald's, Costco, Home Depot and Starbucks. Well, chip wagons instead of McDonalds for me but still the flow of MEGABUCKS to those megacorps isn't going to be affected much.

Probably hardball negotiating tactics built up by Trump over the years, try to scare the crap out of them first and then give back a little something in the settlement for which they'll be grateful. Like North Korea and resolution of the coming North Korean nuclear holocaust, little rocket man and the dotard eventually grinning and back-patting, whatta great deal.

I feel sorry for Melania, probably the butt of a great many jokes in Washington and probably suffering in silence since moving in to the White House. No surprise she wears some cheap I don't care any more jacket.

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PostPosted: June 22nd, 2018, 10:35 am 
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I'm not sure what to do re boycott but 1 thing I am sure of--I will not visit the USA while that R-sole is prez. Quite a few of the people we know have also said the same re visiting. He won Florida by a tiny margin----so many Canadians go there-----------hmmm.

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PostPosted: June 22nd, 2018, 1:34 pm 
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frozentripper wrote:
IMHO (i really don't shop much) avoiding American buying is going to be difficult with the likes of megamonster American-owned multinationals like ..., McDonald's...


You might want to take a deeper look at McDonald's Canada's supply chain, franchise ownership and where the revenue ends up. I think their advertising of using 100% Canadian beef goes back to at least the early 1980's if not the 70's. They haven't made as much noise about other ingredients, but I expect they have a very high percentage of Canadian content overall. Add to that the fact that many franchises are locally owned and operated, hire local residents as employees including a high percentage of students and a boycott of a local McDonald's could be having exactly the opposite effect of what you desire. McDonald's Canada also has a further degree of separation from the McDonald's U.S. company at the corporate level which is not necessarily the case in other parts of the world.

On the building materials side, I'm not sure there are many alternatives in large urban centres. Rona is now ownede by Lowes but may still stock a larger number of Canadian produced parts. Timb-r Mart appears to still be wholly Canadian owned although their stock will not be entirely Canadian produced.

Preferentially buying Canadian isn't a bad thing and I thing when it comes to food, particularly fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, etc. that it is extremely worthwhile. The risk of a broad buy Canadian campaign is that there are enough layers involved that it often isn't clear just how much or little Canadian "content" there is in a particular product.

Ontario is particularly vulnerable due to the extreme lengths the province has gone to in order not to develop trade with the rest of Canada. Oil is one part of that, but the Transcanada highway to the west was severed a year and a half ago by a single bridge failure (January 10, 2016). A single lane of alternating east-west traffic was reopened the next morning. That's right - Canada was linked east to west by a 1-lane bridge in 2016! It took a month and a half to get back to providing a single lane each direction and as far as I can tell a permanent repair has still not been completed. I would far rather be eating range fed Alberta beef than the imported US grown beef we get in supermarkets in southern Ontario but the trade network simply doesn't exist to support it.

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PostPosted: June 22nd, 2018, 5:27 pm 
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I realize McLeans was an opinion piece but it's inaccurate. Amazon has been the target of 45's temper tantrums and he and Jeff Bezos head of Amazon are fierce enemies. Amazon has carried some Ivanka Trump stuff but its hardly in the same nest as Trump shits in. By inference Whole Foods gets a pass too. Thats OK. Pretty soon we won't be able to afford to shop there.

By all means the most important person to you is your local farmer and meat producer. No way will I buy farmed shrimp from Thailand. If i can afford it I will buy local ( ish) from Lousiana.

Fight for your neighborhood hardware store. I don't care if Lowes or Wal Mart is cheaper. Haven't been to either in over a year.

On the other hand if Canadian companies like Toronto Dominion ( the biggest bank in Maine) and JT Irving go bye bye, our economy is shot.

As McDonalds should be.. pap...

And our nursing shortage will be worse. Most all border towns with health facilities hire Canadians.

Maybe you are kind of stuck with us.. But lets kick his T Rump together.


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