I love Lays chips. They’re cheap, tasty and everywhere. But then Trump came and made them unpalatable.
Declaring trade war against Canada and wanting to take over the country was enough for me. I wasn’t going to buy American.
I had to look for other chips. I found Miss Vickies. I was glad. Tasty, high quality, and Canadian. Great. But, when I looked, I found out they’re not Canadian anymore. They’re owned by PepsiCo, just like Lays. So, I went out and bought President’s Choice (PC) instead. Kettle Cooked Spicy Ketchup chips from No Frills. You can’t get more Canadian than that. And these chips are good. I was happily looking for the “Made in Canada”, or “Product of Canada” sticker on the bag. It was clearly labelled “Canada”. But when I looked closer, the round seal said “Gluten-Free” and “Celiac Canada.” Not, “Made in Canada.”
I was hoping this PC bag of chips was Canadian. So, I called the tiny 1-888 number on the bag. The lady on the line asked me a number of questions before I could ask my question. “Can I have your information before we begin?” “What’s the barcode number on the bag”, “What’s the expiry date?” I interrupted and said the call wasn’t about the quality of the chips. “I just want to know if these chips are made in Canada.” She asked me to wait a moment. When she came back, she said, “Yes, they’re made in Canada.” Then I asked, “Where in Canada?” She just repeated, “They’re made in Canada.”
Strange.
She couldn’t tell me where in Canada they’re made. That should be a point of pride. So, I checked out the regulations on Made-in-Canada labels. Putting a Canada label on products is voluntary. But once on, “Product of Canada” generally means that almost all (98%) of the product’s content is Canadian. “Made in Canada” means that more than half (51%) of the product’s content is Canadian. The PC Kettle Cooked Spicy Ketchup chip bag has no label at all.
But it does say “Proudly made with Canadian-grown potatoes.” Confusing. Clearly, there’s a lot of crossover in North American production, which is what makes this trade war so complicated.
I’m still trying to figure it out. Even with the help of apps, computers, and the Internet, it’s taking time and I’m making mistakes. If this is a real trade war, you’d think our government would be equipping us all with the information and technology we need and bringing down prices of Canadian-made food for example so we can keep supporting Canadian.
Instead, we got an election.
So, while our political leaders keep fighting each other, we’ll keep fighting this trade war, on our own. And as for chips, I should probably stop buying them altogether.
It’s a bad habit anyways.
