Feb. 19, 2025 "Looking to identify and shop Canadian products? There's an app for that": Today I found this article on BNN Bloomberg:
His new app, Maple Scan, helps shoppers identify Canadian products by analyzing photographs of products to provide details about where they were made and whether they meet the government criteria for being labelled “product of Canada” or “made in Canada.”
When the app detects a product from outside the country,
it offers users a list of homegrown alternatives.
“Right now, when I go to the grocery store, ultimately, I don’t really know what is Canadian or not or even any information about the company and their backgrounds,” the Calgary-based computer science researcher said about the app’s inspiration.
“The question of what makes the product Canadian is actually kind of challenging and that’s what I was hoping to solve with this.”
The app he created joins a growing group of services that have cropped up in a matter of weeks with one goal: helping people support homegrown brands.
The impetus behind most of them was the souring relations between Canada and the U.S., which has been threatening to impose massive tariffs.
Under U.S. President Donald Trump’s current plans,
all Canadian goods will face 25 per cent duties starting next month,
while energy will also see a 10 per cent tariff.
Around the same time, steel and aluminum originating from anywhere outside the U.S. will also rack up 25 per cent tariffs.
Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to retaliate, but many Canadians aren’t waiting for certainty before making changes. Instead, they’re eschewing American goods in favour of domestic alternatives starting now.
But figuring out what’s Canadian is both difficult and “nuanced,” said Christopher Dip, who co-founded the Montreal-based Buy Beaver app with Alexandre Hamila.
Some products, for example, are made in Canada but with ingredients from other countries.
Other items were made by Canadian companies outside the country
and many were produced by foreign-headquartered multinationals in Canada.
As Dip and Hamila have learned,
where something is made isn’t always clear from the packaging
and who owns the company can change without the average shopper really noticing.
One example they stumbled across is Kicking Horse Coffee. The brand got its start in Invermere, B.C., but in 2017, Italian coffee giant Lavazza took an 80 per cent stake in the brand.
The Buy Beaver app aims to help shoppers sort through such confusion by relying on crowdsourcing.
Scanning an item’s barcode through their app produces three ratings
— one each for the company’s manufacturing location,
materials and ingredients,
and brand ownership.
The higher each score is, the more users there are who voted on it being Canadian.
“We know there are some errors but most of the time, it’s going to be right,” Dip said.
Maple Scan, which leverages artificial intelligence to infer and synthesize information about products, is also imperfect.
While the app got the details of several products right, it told The Canadian Press last week
that a bottle of French’s ketchup was prepared in Canada, which is true,
but by Swiss Chalet- and Harvey’s-owner Recipe Unlimited, which is wrong.
French’s is, in fact, made by U.S.-based McCormick & Company.
Ivanov has since begun working to fix these issues by programming its AI to cross-reference supplementary online sources.
He’s also mused about boosting the precision again by eventually building a curated database of products and allowing users to vote on the accuracy of each entry.
Because many of the apps came together quickly, some aren’t available on all mobile operating systems yet or are contingent on their userbase remaining engaged.
Edmonton software developers William Boytinck and Matthew Suddaby, for example, are relying on crowdsourcing to power their Shop Canadian app.
Users judge how Canadian a product is by doling out up to five maple leaves.
An item with five maple leaves must be produced in Canada with all its parts coming from within the country.
Boytinck admits the method has its errors, but said, “the more people use it, the more accurate it gets.”
And so far, a lot of people are using it. The app recently crossed the 100,000 downloads mark as of last week.
“Our original goal was just to help a few keep a couple hundred dollars in Canada,” he said.
“It’s a simple idea and we’ve just exploded.”
Ivanov has had a similar experience. Maple Scan had 2,000 downloads last week and the userbase is growing.
Most who have adopted the app are opening it several times a day and scanning everything from grocery store staples to electronics, makeup and even store fronts, he said.
What they’re learning may already be shaping their purchasing decisions.
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. CEO Per Bank said Friday that his grocery chains noticed a 7.5 per cent increase in sales of products prepared in Canada after the tariff spat intensified.
That increase reached double digits last week and is particularly pronounced in the dairy and frozen food categories, he wrote on LinkedIn.
While it’s unclear if the apps contributed to such sales, Ivanov is just pleased to see people’s interest in buying Canadian climbing.
“It’s been wonderful and I am just so excited that this is something that people are finding helpful,” he said.
With files from Aaron Sousa in Edmonton.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2025.
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
Picture this: You're wandering around the grocery store, trying to buy Canadian. That carton of blueberries is a no go — and that loaf of bread doesn't make the cut, either. The juice you wanted to buy was made in Canada … using imported ingredients.
Wouldn't it be great if your phone could just magically tell you whether the products you want to buy are Canadian or not? Well, now it can — thanks to savvy entrepreneurs across the country who've created apps meant to help shoppers identify the origin of everyday staples.
There's Shop Canadian, the brainchild of two software developers in Edmonton;
Buy Beaver, which was dreamt up by two Montreal entrepreneurs;
O SCANada, created by a mother and son in Calgary;
and Maple Scan, an AI-powered tool made by a Calgary researcher.
All four apps have a feature that lets shoppers scan an item's barcode to determine how Canadian it is.
"We saw on social media a lot of different lists of products being shared.
They were not always correct,
so we thought we had to find a way to centralize all of this information,"
said Alexandre Hamila, one of the co-creators of Buy Beaver.
After a user scans the barcode of a product, the Buy Beaver app rates how Canadian the product is on a scale of one to five based on several criteria:
where it's made,
where the ingredients or materials are from
and who owns the brand.
"Right now, everything is community-driven," explained Christopher Dip, the app's other co-creator.
"So if you can scan a product and it says it's not rated yet, then you are able to rate it and give your own info.
And as more people vote, we expect the scores to get more and more accurate.
"If the product's properly labelled, you technically don't need our app.
But you might need our app to know if the parent company is an American one or not.
Some people might argue that even if it's a product of Canada
and it's supporting Canadian jobs,
if the profits go back to the U.S.,
then that might be something to consider," added Dip.
"But we just give that info to the community, and they can make a decision if they want to buy that product or not."
Like Dip and Hamila, the Edmonton-based creators of Shop Canadian say they were inspired by a growing movement to buy Canadian — one that emerged in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against this country.
"We were in our kitchen, and I was trying to figure out if what I was eating was Canadian and I had to jump through several hoops," said William Boytinck, who developed Shop Canadian with his business partner, Matthew Suddaby.
"And eventually I came up with the idea."
Retailers hearing demands for Canadian products
When the economy gets tough or the supply chain is disrupted, people pay more attention to where their money is going, said Michael Mulvey, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management.
The "Buy Canadian" apps that have recently cropped up are "a way to make a more educated consumer, a more demanding consumer," he said,
adding that a crowdsourcing approach used by the likes of Buy Beaver and Shop Canadian also helps people feel more engaged during times of crisis.
"Often people feel sort of helpless when all the world's spinning around them, and this is a way for them to take action and have a voice," said Mulvey.
"And I think that's a positive thing in democracy."
There could be a trade-off
between the consumer's preferred product
and the one that costs less to buy,
adds Mulvey.
People might have to look at their wallets and decide if they want to pay the voluntary tax presented in front of them,
and "there's going to be a lot of people who just can't afford to partake at this moment."
Will brands and retailers take the hint? At the very least, the demand for these tools might force companies to listen.
Loblaws, for example, is already showcasing products made in Canada in stores, online and in flyers, the grocery giant's spokesperson Catherine Thomas recently told The Canadian Press.
And Pierre St-Laurent, chief operating officer of Sobeys and Safeway owner Empire, said customers are asking where products come from.
The grocer is responding with more signage and information to help them make their picks.
"Retailers — if there's demand by customers to find Canadian goods, which there seems to be — I think it's in their interest to help them find those goods and help their search processes," said Mulvey.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/buying-canadian-shopping-apps-barcode-scanners-1.7463039
Helen C, Winnipeg, Manitoba, would like to know:
Due to the threat of tariffs, do you look more carefully at country of origin when shopping?
Yes 75.05% (3258)
No 24.95% (1083)
My opinion: Yes.
Feb. 28, 2025 "NDP calls for Canada-wide boycott of Amazon, including cancelling government contracts": This is on BNN Bloomberg. I don't buy things at Amazon:
In light of the current labour dispute between Amazon and workers in Quebec, NDP MP Charlie Angus is calling on Canadians to support a national boycott of the company, including cancelling government contracts. Angus also accused Amazon owner Jeff Bezos of 'making fun' of Canada by selling '51st state' merchandise connected to ongoing comments made about Canada by Donald Trump.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6665000
The other 2 blog posts of the week:
"4 tax tools that can keep more of your money invested"/ "4 tax-saving dates for investors to mark on their 2025 calendars"
https://badcb.blogspot.com/2025/02/4-tax-tools-that-can-keep-more-of-your.html
"TFSA a more effective tax tool when RRSP becomes a burden"/ "Tax credits that will help save you money in 2025"
https://badcb.blogspot.com/2025/02/tfsa-more-effective-tax-tool-when-rrsp.html
Diners in a Windsor, Ont., restaurant were stunned and elated over the weekend when an American couple picked up the bill for the packed establishment — citing U.S. President Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric and their love of Canada.
May Hermiz is the co-owner of Toast on Erie Street. She says the day took an unexpected turn during their lunch rush when the couple from Ann Arbor, Mich., told her they wanted to pay for everyone in the restaurant.
"I was kind of stunned because nobody has ever done that in our nine years of being in business, nobody has ever paid for the whole restaurant," Hermiz told CBC News.
Staff got the restaurant's attention and made the announcement, before the woman sitting in one of the restaurant's back tables stood to speak.
"Everyone was cheering. They were cheering them on and they were applauding."
'It was just very generous'
Tecumseh resident Aileen Ganley-Mutter was at the restaurant with her godchildren. She said they were finishing up and waiting for the waitress to bring the bill.
"We were all kind of shocked because that doesn't happen, because there's about 50 to 60 people in there," Ganley-Mutter said, adding that there was "a full-on cheer and clapping."
Ganley-Mutter said she went over to the couple because she still felt it was necessary to give some money toward the tip.
"They said 'no, that's the least we could do,'" she said. "They said … they weren't going to stop supporting Canada and loving Canada, and they felt bad for the rift that it was causing, so it was just very generous.
Ganley-Mutter shared the experience on social media as a "good news story" to counter the plentiful bad news she says she's used to seeing.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination.
Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei province in late January. When reviewing the photos, he saw something he hadn’t noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge.
“It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
“The puppy’s posture is like it’s drinking water, or it’s looking at some fish. It also looks like it’s quietly protecting the Yangtze River," he said.
Guo's post on Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, received 120,000 likes within 10 days. On the media platform Weibo, the hashtag #xiaogoushan — Chinese for “Puppy Mountain” — drew millions of views.
“I think I’ve had 10 corneal transplants now in 20 years,” said Chapman, who works as a massage therapist in North Vancouver.
He’s having another procedure on Thursday that he hopes will restore his sight. It’s called tooth-in-eye surgery, and it sounds like science fiction.
Feb. 25, 2025 "Thieves bought a winning lottery ticket with a stolen credit card. Its owner has offered to split the jackpot": Today I found this article by and Lisa Klaassen on CNN:
Gossip Girl star Michelle Trachtenberg has died, according to reports. She was 39.
The New York-born actor, who also starred in Buffy The Vampire Slayer as Buffy’s younger sister Dawn and led the 2005 Disney movie Ice Princess, was found dead in her New York City apartment by her mother.
The New York Post reports that her police responded to a 911 call just after 8 a.m. on Wednesday at One Columbus Place, a 51-story luxury apartment complex on Central Park South.
The NYPD confirmed they found Trachtenberg “unconscious and unresponsive” and she was pronounced dead by emergency medical workers.
Her cause of death has not yet been determined, but police are not investigating it as suspicious.
According to the Post, she recently underwent a liver transplant.
https://ca.yahoo.com/news/michelle-trachtenberg-dead-popular-1990s-172814752.html
My opinion: I was shocked, surprised, and saddened to hear that. I didn't know she was sick.
