Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Happiness is: Day 21

With Canada Day fast approaching (pardon me while I digress for a moment - a stat holiday, on a TUESDAY??? Does not for a long weekend make! Lame. Totally Lame.)

Sorry, where was I?

Right. With Canada Day fast approaching, I'd like to take a moment to tell you how much I love this place, while at the same time expounding the virtues of shopping locally here in the great white north, AND thus entering the I Buy Canadian Blog Party Contest, hosted by Apples and Oranges. Go multi-tasking me, go! (Do I get extra points for all the linkage, Lara???)

Generally, we Canadians are pretty cool folk. Although there's a whole pile of this country I have yet to see, I have seen a decent chunk of it, and I have to tell you, there's parts of it that are pretty damn stunning. Like, hello! Check this shit out in Newfoundland! Um, STUNNING!! (Thanks Romano!)

There's Quebec City of my heart, Cape Breton Island, Banff National Park (the lake really IS that colour!) Hell, there's even some pretty stunning places right around the corner. There's also Thunder Bay, but hey, you take the good with the bad, right? (If you want to see more, check out the Seven Wonders of Canada at the CBC.)

Now, no matter WHERE you live in this great wide world of ours, you should be out there buying LOCAL. So, as much as we can, we try to buy local. If not local, at least Canadian. We're getting better every day.

It's hard, true that. But it's SO good for you!

We love supporting local businesses, and getting to know the people who hand craft our goodies, (or slaughter our steak, whatever the case may be!) Aside from all the obvious things like reducing emissions, and keeping jobs in the community, it just FEELS GOOD to buy Canadian.

I've spoken about it before, but we are proud supporters of independent artists. Admittedly, not all of them are Canadian, but certainly a number of them are. And there are a TON of incredibly talented artists, RIGHT HERE in our community, and ever so slightly farther afield. Last year we made a commitment to have a Handmade Christmas, but this year I'd like to give a shot at a 100 Mile Christmas...supporting the little guy (or gal,) the guy close to home, the guy who you can likely chat with right there in his little shop/studio/whatever. Shopping locally does good things for your community, your wallet, your gas tank, and the planet.

I had big plans to make a big list of all the peeps around here we love so much, but all this linkage has done tuckered me right out! So I'll just share this with you, the t-shirt that the young lad will be wearing next Tuesday:


Joe Fresh, dudes. Another super cool, Canadian company.

(The shirt is made in India though...can't win 'em all!!)

Happiness is shopping locally. Supporting local artists. Being Canadian.

4 comments:

Burgh Baby said...

Sorry, but it's pretty funny that the shirt wasn't made in Canada. You would think someone would have thought that through!

Lara said...

Awesome post. Excellent linking too :) I love your idea for 100 mile xmas... I also want to start getting local meat.
Also, you're very right. stat holiday on a tuesday - not cool.

Anonymous said...

Next year Canada Day is on WEDNESDAY!

Anonymous said...

I agree about the Tuesday Stat Day, however, I'll take ANY day off that I can get, TYVM.
Also, didja know that one of the prizes you might win for writing an awesome post about buying Canadian is jewellery made by me! Yeah, I know.
Check out my blog to see my work and start thinking about what you'd pick if you won - no you can't pick the entire LW bridal party set, sorry.