Friday, April 25, 2025

Shopping for a Union? Choose an All-Canadian One

CLAC represents skilled workers in most sectors of the Canadian economy. We are ready and willing to do our part to unlock Canada’s true potential

Blogs National

By André van Heerden, Communications Director

I love shopping at my local grocery store and seeing all the red maple leaf stickers indicating Canadian products. I certainly look for those stickers and feel good about buying those products.

Stores, politicians, and people across Canada are all suddenly much more overtly patriotic because of the rhetoric and trade war coming from the US. It’s unfortunate that it took external threats to awaken Canadian pride, but it’s good to know that people love Canada enough to stand up for it. And I think it’s a good thing that we’re taking stock of what Canada has to offer, what makes us a nation, and how we need to make Canada stronger.

What isn’t good is if stores, or brands, are mislabeling themselves as Canadian when they’re not. There is a notable difference between even “Made in Canada” and “Product of Canada.” Just because something is sold in Canada, doesn’t make it Canadian. Just because one part of the manufacturing or packaging of a product is in Canada, doesn’t make it Canadian.

CLAC was founded in 1952 in Canada. It represents workers across Canada, and only in Canada. Its head office is in Canada, and it doesn’t send any money to any officers or affiliates outside of Canada. It truly is the Christian Labour Association of CANADA.

What most people don’t realize is that many of the big unions in Canada have their head offices in the United States, were founded in the United States, and send workers’ dues money outside of Canada.

CLAC recently ran a political advocacy campaign (It’s Time to Build Canada) aimed at candidates for the Canadian federal election. In it we pushed candidates to “fast-track infrastructure projects, invest in key industries, support made-in-Canada policies, expand trade beyond the US, and remove barriers that hold us back.”

We noted that “CLAC—an all-Canadian union—represents skilled workers in most sectors of the Canadian economy. We are ready and willing to do our part to unlock Canada’s true potential.”

CLAC’s focus is very much on creating new jobs for Canadians to help build Canada and make it stronger.

It’s a win for Canadian workers.

It’s a win for Canadian contractors and employers.

It’s a win for Canada as a whole.

And it’s a win for CLAC, which gets the great privilege of representing workers across Canada, supporting people right where they work and live.

Shopping for a Union? Choose an All-Canadian One

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