I'm Peeved Off With Canada Right Now.

I’m a proud Canadian.  I arrived in Toronto on July 1, 1988.  Became a citizen in 1991 and I love this country.  Come to my house and you’ll see the Canadian flag flying high at our door.  I doff my cap at anthem time when I see the Leafs, Jays or Raptors.  I joyfully cried when the Kid scored to win Olympic Gold in overtime.  You get the picture!

But I’m peeved off at Canada right now.  Really Peeved off.

I understand the concept of economics as well as anyone.    Comparative advantage is important too.  Very simply, it means that countries should produce according to their strengths and import goods that they can’t produce themselves.

But when it comes to Canada’s iconic passport covers - economic concepts like comparative advantage should be thrown out the window:  right out the window.

I heard today that Canadian Bank Note, an Ottawa-based company has been given the federal contract to produce Canadian passport covers.  Good, but there’s a fly in the ointment.   They’re outsourcing the job to a company in the Netherlands, forcing Ontario-based Columbia Finishing Mills, the company that produced the passport covers for the past three decades to lay off 25% of their staff.

I’m as a-political as they get – in other words I believe that all politicians, with rare exception will do whatever it takes to get the vote.   Compromise your ethics to win the vote?  Check!  Badmouth the other guy to win the vote?  Check!  Suck and blow at the same time to get the vote?  Sure!

Rick Roth, press secretary for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said the government had nothing to do with the decision to outsource the work and that Canadian Bank Note was chosen because "it was the only company capable of printing the documents in Canada."

Baloney!

Shouldn't 'made in Canada' have been a stipulation in the contract?  And if the feds were unaware that Columbia Finishing Mills were outsourcing the job to a Netherlands-based company, what does that say about the concept of due diligence?  Apparently, not much!

Sadder, is that this is not the first time Canadian symbols have been made abroad. In 2009, the ministry of Canadian Heritage bought $200,000 worth of Canadian flag pins imported from China.  And more recently, lapel pins commissioned by the Harper government and distributed during the diamond jubilee celebrations were also made in China.

OK, so it may be cheaper to get the stuff in China.  But should Canadian symbols, like passports in particular, be just about dollars and cents.  These are Canadian icons – and things that should be nearest and dearest to our collective hearts.  Problem is they’re not.

Let’s show some gold old fashioned patriotism here and demand that our national symbols be made by Canadians in Canada.

  

I agree with a comment I heard yesterday, (typo included) – “Think about it. If the government is so gun ho about saving money, maybe we should outsource our government too.”

 Peace, especially to all those on Parliament Hill, soon to be located in China.