Made in Canada makes sense

When was the last time you tried on any piece of clothing be it a shirt, pants, baseball cap or even a tuque that had the label, 'Made in Canada' in it?

Even a 'Made in USA' label would be a shocker to see these days because North Americans simply do not manufacture clothing anymore. We buy it but the textile industry left our shores long ago and sadly so too did those jobs.

It appears another industry has picked up and left Canadian shores as well. This week Sher-Wood closed its Quebec operations and relocated to China. The Chinese now can lay claim to manufacturing hockey sticks National Hockey League stars used to proclaim as the best in the game. Of course they won't be the best in the game anymore because the Chinese manufacture nothing but junk. But they do so at the lowest possible prices.

Sher-Wood operated in Canada for 62 years but officials said the company had no choice but to ship out production of composite players’ and goaltenders’ sticks to China, where it has over the years steadily been moving its manufacturing facilities. Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be a huge hockey fan but nothing his party has done, including corporate tax cuts, was able to save Sher-Wood from shipping its sticks and Canadian jobs, overseas.

So if you wonder what's been happening to the shrinking Canadian middle class look no further than low-wage countries in Asia. A Statistics Canada report (February 20, 2009) measured the recent decline: “Canada lost nearly 322,000 manufacturing jobs from 2004 to 2008, with more than one in seven manufacturing jobs disappearing over the period.”

In Canada we're in the midst of a federal election. Today NDP leader Jack Layton made an announcement that his party would not cut defence spending – and that the money spent on procurement, especially for ships, would remain here in Canada. Wouldn't it be refreshing if more of  the parties running for office would do the same? If you're going to send Canadian soldiers over seas send them there in Canadian ships and planes made in their own country.

Middle class Canadians need decent paying jobs and governments of all stripes should attempt to attract and retain companies here.

It gets tiring reading about Canadian companies moving their operations offshore and far too often those headlines are splashed across newspapers and websites all over the globe.

The party that can make this a priority and follow through on it will have my vote for life.