Christmas Resolution

I have been thinking a lot lately about where the stuff in our stores comes from, I remember one moment this summer when I was in Homesense looking for something or other and I was checking where everything was from and it was all imported, quite a bit from developing countries and it made me sad. Here I was at this store having avoided going to Walmart for the same item because everything is from China and its no better. Now I know that most of the stuff I buy is from places like China but I have been trying to be more contentious about it. So I have make the resolution that this year for Christmas I will not buy anything for a gift if it was made in China/Japan/Taiwan or any other county where the workers are exploited and there is absolutely no concern for the environment. I had thought about resolving to buy all Canadian but I'm not sure if I will have the time to search out enough different types of shops because right now with working 40 hours a week and taking 3 university classes it is very hard to go wandering around poking through all the little shops, though I greatly enjoy doing so. So I though if I at least limited to things from places like here/US/UK at least I will know that it was not made by some poor worker getting paid pennies so I could buy a shiny new item cheaply. I have found a few local shops that I know I can get Ontario made things in, but for example I want to creates some photo books as gifts and there is this great US company called Blurb that I love using.

Lately people are very upset about so many jobs moving to China or Mexico but very few actually think about the fact that it is our spending habits causing it. If we were not so focused on getting everything as cheep as possible and actually thought about where the product came from and simply refused to buy if it wasn't made here than there would be no market for them to sell to. If there is no market than they wont import as much. If we bought as locally as possible more small family businesses would be able to survive. I know this is easier said than done, the big box stores are so convenient and have longer business hours but I think it is worth the effort.