I got an email from MEC saying they were back to Canadian ownership.

I wonder what accounting trick they used to make themselves seem Canadian?

What Canada really needs is for someone (government agency, nonprofit organization, public group) to trade-mark a particularly Canadian symbol, closely regulate its use, and corporations that meet strict Canadian content criteria are allowed to use it. Thus, truly Canadian companies and businesses could be easily identified.

You do you, Boo. If I were you and the Yankees were acting like Dicks, I wouldn't trust none of that shit. Protect your sovereignty. Protect your culture. Protect your nation.

American corporations are the new american backpackers who used to visit europe.

American corps right now:

Look at how many Canadians Walmart employs! (Is a position I've heard several times).

The part nobody understands is that ownership is explicitly about control and profit-taking. Doing business is a two-way street, but in situations like these, there's an awful lot more traffic going in one direction, and you can use your imagination to figure out which direction that traffic is going. Plantations employed lots of slaves too, gave them housing and food, but it didn't mean they were generous charities. Yeah that's an extreme example, but this is the point. An employer that comes here and pays hundreds of thousands of people within spitting distance of minimum wage -- literally the bare minimum legally and economically possible, does not make them a good and genuine employer that has Canada or Canadians' best interests at heart. They just want our money, while giving the least possible back.

Fuck 'em.

It's been going on for years. Tim Hortons, with some of the loudest "Canadian" branding, had been owned by Pepsi (via Restaurant Brands International) for over a decade.

We need to pass some new "truth in advertising" laws.

Seen those ads on the sides of McDonald’s trucks? The ones where the meat is missing from the sandwich and they say “what things would look like without Canadian ingredients.” My first thought was “wait… shouldn’t there be NOTHING THERE?”

Wait, were we thinking the capitalist engine runs on truth?

When your only incentive is profit, everything becomes a means to that end, unless you are somehow held accountable by a check or balance in the system.

American Eagle would claim Canadian roots now if they thought they could get away with it.

The company I work for now says they are Irish.

Denny's is now "Denny's Canada, PROUDLY CANADIAN OWNED AND OPERATED."

Fuckers.

I just don't care to listen, believe anything any big corpo says..they lie, have no obligation to be truthful ever and will never face consequences. They all suck, all their products are trash and nothing will make me see anything differently.

I only buy for need now. Wants hardly exist anymore. I've checked out and it's saved me loads oas a result.

the rats are fleeing the flooding cargo holds.

Fun fact: When I initially saw your post I read it as "films", and thought about how many American movies and tv shows are filmed here.

Yeah.... though to be fair, even more 'typically' Canadian companies rely heavily on American / foreign supply chains, which in the eyes of some may also be considered deceptive.

Like almost every "local Canadian Credit Union" has their online banking hosted by Intellect Design, an India based multinational company. A ton of them have their back office entirely in M365. A large number use American banking systems such as FISERV -- there's like, only 1-3 tiny CUs in BC that use a Canadian back-end banking system, another 4-5 in Ontario. Yet they generally all advertise as Canadian businesses, because they're Canadian owned (by their members), Canada "incorporated/operated" (business lic in Canada, physically operating exclusively in Canada), and are subject to Canadian regulations (which allow/encourage them to outsource to other countries). They're unable to function without America/foreign involvement, paying/supporting foreign companies on the regular, and are exposed to potential disruption risks should trade deteriorate (eg. USA impeding digital service to Canada, equates to them "turning off" any company reliant on those services...).

In regards to what counts as supporting a kind of patriotic Canadian consumer movement, where the line gets drawn is entirely up to the consumer. If they don't want to bother looking too closely, they may be fine with just the 'store employees' being Canadian. If they want to dig deeper, they may want to make sure that the products are generally made in Canada. Deeper still they may check the supply chains / operation items that support the business.

While I personally disagree with the lightest interpretation of it, ie the "well, our employees are Canadian, good enough!", I can't realistically expect people to research every product/service they may buy. Macroscopic alterations like that are best done through govt actions, sorta like forcing people to recycle. Our govt hasn't really taken any tangible action on this front as of yet, just pageantry and bluster for them to get re-elected. And it's unlikely that it'll become a political wedge issue in the long-run.