Canada First!

I have been trying to be a locavore for awhile now and I guess the desire to eat and shop locally is now expanding into trying to support our economy. Maybe it is just a natural progression to expand the local from my community to my country.

Definition of a locavore: “Someone who exclusively (or at least primarily) eats foods from their local or regional foodshed or a determined radius from their home (commonly either 100 or 250 miles, depending on location). By eating locally, most locavores hope to create a greater connection between themselves and their food sources, resist industrialized and processed foods, and support their local economy. The majority of locavores do not give themselves a strict radius from which to eat, but instead buy as much of their food as they can from farmers, growers, and sellers with whom they have a relationship or whose growing or producing practices appeal they want to support.
Many locavores give themselves several exceptions to their local diet. Commonly excluded items include coffee, chocolate, salt, and/or spices - although locavores tend to try and find local coffee roasters, chocolate producers, and spice importers when they can”.

That is the starting point of thoughtful consumption – to buy local when I can.

I chose local food for freshness reasons but I also shop locally because it sustains the town I live in. I have been reading about Darren Barefoot who is spending a year living Canadian – he buys, eats and consume only Canadian products and services which I think is fascinating as I can see the potential for developing more Canadian products. Thoughtful Consumption means thinking of the origin of the product before buying it and trying to source a local item instead.

What if we had a pool of one million people who were committed to buying Canadian products first? Maybe more companies would be interested in trying to develop and launch products if there was a ready and willing pool of customers and an easy way to contact them. Imagine a registry of Canada First consumers, how about it? Every grocery store would have a local section with all the products kept together to make it easier for the consumer to find the products. If the demand is there the retailer will participate.

So while I wait for one million “Canada First” consumers to sign up on my blog I will try to live as Canadian as I can for the next month.

I will only listen to Canadian music which shouldn’t be difficult as I have all of Leonard Cohen’s music on my i-pod. I also love Jann Arden and Paul Brandt and there is a long list of Canadian artists like Celine Dion, Shania Twain and Sarah McLachlan.

Canadian Television is harder to find but I love HGTV and there are several Canadian hosts like Mike Holmes and Debbie Travis. I can watch Canadian news, cooking shows with Michael Smith and Linda Olson, Rick Mercer Report and of course there is my beloved CBC Radio.

Canadian authors are plentiful and maybe I will discover new authors just because they are local.

I have already sourced lots of local food and I can get red and white wine from Creston, BC. There is lots of local beer in Calgary and I especially love Wild Rose Brewery and they have great food too.

First challenge will be tires for my car – are there any still made in Canada?

The Wealthy Barber Returns

I read David Chilton’s first book “The Wealthy Barber” several years ago and I loved his story with the simple message that you must pay yourself first. YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST SAVE 10% OF WHAT YOU EARN - it must be a priority and be the first thing you do when you get paid.

Mr. Chilton’s second book “The Wealthy Barber Returns” is now out and I just finished reading it and it is very good. I found it very informative and I love the humor he injects into this serious financial subject. He starts out by saying that the reason it is so difficult to save is because no one really wants you to which is very true. Almost everyone wants you to spend as much as possible. Your kids, your friends who have weddings in Mexico (remember when everyone’s reception was in a community hall?)” and even real estate agents and mortgage brokers will always ask you how much you qualify for, as if that should determine how much house you buy.

One of the biggest threats to our financial well being is the easy access to lines of credit which are secured by our homes. It undermines our finances as we continue to spend and will never get our home paid off. This becomes an issue later when we start to contemplate working less which we won’t be able to afford, as we now have to pay off the line of credit when we sell the house.

He continues to say that “we want what we already have” but now newer, bigger and fancier which means we will never be satisfied – think houses, cars, appliances, televisions.

Keeping up with the Joneses used to mean that everyone in the same neighborhood wanted the same things. Nowadays friendships are less likely to be anchored in neighborhoods as your friends come from a larger circle like the gym, work, kids school etc. We’re now exposed to the spending habits of people across a much wider income range. We hitch rides in their fancy cars, we marvel at their exotic vacations and are in awe of their son's new $500 hockey stick. It’s hard to overstate the impact that our ‘reference group’ have on our spending decisions. Their lifestyles intoxicate us and with easy credit available it leads us to act richer than we are.

Mr. Chilton suggests that “it’s cheaper to drag your friends down to your level than for you to raise to theirs”. Try saying “I can’t afford it” more often and you might find your friends quickly agreeing that they can’t either!