Simple fact of the global economy, Canada higher wages mean a more expensive product. That is why alot of stuff is not produced in Canada anymore. American companies have been having a majority of their products produced in Asia. Even the mighty iphone is produced in China.
All the goods in retail stores, is made cheaper by people over in Asia.
When people shop, they shop online, which takes away from the retail store. Mostly its cheaper online.
So when people are asking for you to buy Canadian, and you choose Walmart, Amazon etc, money leaves the country.
Another problem in Canada is mark-up. Import and sale locale. Steep mark up pricing. So as Canadians when you look at American prices, you begin to see the difference.
Ever have that pop up that comes up when shopping at Home Depot. com, it asks if you are in Canada....
Ever gone out to find a particular brand, but in Canada only 1 company has the rights to sell it. Some American stores don't sell directly to Canada.
Ontario used to have the autopac, where they manufactured cars/trucks; slowly been shutting down over the last 30 years and jobs have gone to Mexico.
Canada has the raw resources and we sell it to the world cheaply (look at Aluminum). We have education system (we loose most to McDonalds and the US).
So in world affairs we are lucky to be in the G8, as our manufacturing is slowly being outsourced to cheaper labour countries.
So if Canada is not first on the list to get shots for immunization, we have nobody but ourselves to blame for electing governments that did not look after Canadian interest 10 to 40 years ago, when the world economy was changing. You cannot just blame 1 PM, you have to blame them all.
After all I like verdant nationalism, it creates people like the old british army system, for honour, follow all bad orders and run and rush the enemy with full backpacks and get slaughtered.... (you know WW1) by the new weapon -- machine guns.....
Taking a hint from the US.
Alll ships under US flag have to be built there. If you are from a another country, you may only come into only 1 port (you can't go to 2 different American ports). Only American ships can go from one port to another. Trade protection and supports their industrys.
Why do you thing they import Oil, they used to export gas and oil before WW2. Now they import it from Canada. The northern supply.
They are taking the long term view.
In Canada, we want to bring in investment to start business, those business insist on having deal to cut the bottom line. These companies make great profit, but benifit the communities very little and government tax revenues. So slowly our resources are being sucked out of Canada, really cheap... The people who work for the government that make these deals, make them on the condition that the company will hire them after they finish their service to Canada( now they can't work for a company for up to 1 year from quitting the government job- otherwise its considered conflict of interest) Really its these people that are selling Canada out for their own benifits. Which is why the government about 18 years ago, started on an ethics briefs on doing business... yeah that really works.....
So the government (and social norm) tells us to be good, ethical and nice to every one. In reality people are not like that, they will stab in you in the back, fuck you over, renig on a promise and all sorts of unethical things because of the almighty dollar. Unless you have a contract, they don't pay.... So hidden behind that sweet smile, is a person that is gonna fuck you over when they can. Under the phrase "If you are not fucking someone over, you are getting fucked"....
Also if you think the Canadian Government is made up of MP in Parliment, you are sadly wrong. The ministers have departments, made up of civil servants; these civil servants are the ones who run the government and bring things to the attention of the PM and Privy council. Its kind of a government with an goverment (like saying they know where the bodies are buried). These senior civil servants are virtually untouchable.... and they play dirty politics.... Anyone that has worked for the government has been drowned in email, letters, procedures that are only there to slow down and confuse every one.... instead of getting the job done.... The reality is that is someone senior in one department, can tell a friend in another department (who sends a shit mail down the chain) until it reaches its desired level/affect. That is power..... And these persons are not elected...
The reality our federal government hasn't changed much, just a few changes of rules and procedures, but really if you elected a Liberal or Conservative government they are doing the same things....