A show of unity
The surge in Canadian pride we are witnessing is inspiring. We know we live in a great country, but we have long been quiet about it. It’s not the Canadian way to be boastful, but when a U.S. president talks about annexing us into a “51st state,” well, that changes everything.
Canadians are responding in ways big and small – cancelling trips south of the border, refusing to buy products made in the U.S., and yes, changing the words to our national anthem and booing the “Star Spangled Banner” during an international hockey tournament.
Many Canadians from coast to coast to coast are committing to buying products made in Canada wherever possible. That is a wonderful thing for our national pride but it’s also a game-changer for Canadian businesses, workers, communities and our planet.
HAMILTON CITY Magazine is locally and independently owned, and committed to our community, through our coverage but also our business practices. We pay for entirely original content produced by only residents of Hamilton and Burlington and we commit to purchasing only through local suppliers wherever that is possible.
It is our hope that more advertisers will turn to local media sources such as ours to spend their advertising dollars rather than supporting giant American corporations. Spending on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), X or Google is becoming untenable for many because of the political actions of their owners. Investing any dollars in these platforms provides absolutely no benefits locally and is increasingly antithetical to the interests of our country.
It's also worth noting that the mostly unsightly billboards across our city are no better in terms of supporting local. The money spent on that ad space flows right out of our community, perhaps to Toronto but more likely to New York or Chicago.
Local businesses that are truly dedicated to their communities are advertising through the HSR system (which supports improvements to our transit system) or through local media that not only are producing content that shines a light on our city, but providing important local jobs.
This is the time for us to band together and commit to using our dollars to support our values.
– The HCM team
