Proud of My Neighbours

The folks in the town of Halton Hills are on to something:

the Fair Trade Resolution first passed by the Town of Halton Hills [is] now spreading across Canada. The resolution supports free, fair, and reciprocal trade. It simply says that Canadian municipalities are willing to make their infrastructure projects open to any country that doesn’t block Canadian-made products for their projects. That’s called reciprocity and it’s just common sense.

Similar resolutions have already been passed or endorsed by the Region of Halton, the City of Temiskaming Shores, and over a dozen other local governments. Others are planning to bring it before their local or regional councils in the coming weeks. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities, with over 1750 members and representing almost 90% of Canada’s population, has classified it as an emergency resolution to be debated and voted on at its annual conference in Whistler, BC in early June.

Halton Hills is practically next door to Guelph, so these folks are basically my neighbours. The resolutions are probably only symbolic but they're still a powerful statement against protectionism. The statements are timely, the current US administration is running rough shod over their international trade obligations and the more Canadian municipalities, companies, and consumers send messages to US companies and consumers the better chance the US government will realize the error of it's ways.

Yeah, I know I'm probably dreaming, but I still commend the municipalities and Fair Trade for Canada for their efforts so far.

H/T Bourque