Eight years ago a group of investors built a large plant in a neighbouring town to produce protein concentrates and flours from peas, lentils and faba beans. In 1918 Ingredion, a US company, made an investment in the plant and in 2020 became full owners. A month ago they announced they were closing the plant at the end of December, 2024.

Bick’s Pickles used to be the largest pickle maker in Canada. Then Smucker bought the company and moved production to the USA. Bick’s pickles are still sold in every supermarket in Canada, but the cucumber farmers lost their biggest market.

A few years ago Heinz closed their ketchup plant in Ontario and moved production to the USA. That caused enough of a reaction that they are again producing ketchup in Canada, with a big maple leaf on the bottles and the inscription “Produced in Canada.” The tomatoes, however, are still grown in the USA.

What this says is that big multinational companies believe they can stop buying from Canadian farmers and continue selling to Canadian consumers.

This is where globalism has brought us. There is a worldwide elite who owe no loyalty to any country and believe that people can be manipulated like pawns on a chess board. Then there are the people who are attached to their local communities and do not want to be manipulated. Donald Trump’s success owes a lot to correctly reading the mood of such people.

I am not suggesting political action to correct the kind of problem I described at the beginning. But perhaps we should pay attention to the labels when we go grocery shopping and do our best to support Canadian farmers and Canadian workers. The globalists might wake up and take note of such grassroots economic decisions.