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Congratulations to Randy Berg who has won the second of three autographed copies of Jeff's book. Read Part 2 of this series and his comment here. Dont forget to read Part 1 if you haven't. You too win a copy! All you have to do to be eligible is leave a comment on this post, sharing your thoughts about this issue: If you are concerned or encouraged, agree or disagree, etc. We will then randomly select a winner and send the copy. The deadline for Part 3 (this post) is next Sunday, August 30th). Hurry up though: This is the last one we are giving away!

Isabelle: It's a pretty amazing concept and it's something I hope our politicians have the guts to handle.

Jeff: Don't worry about the politicians. When oil is $ 7.00 a gallon at the pump, people will know exactly what to do. They will send the right message to the politicians. For example, I don't know why we're spending billions of dollars to pro-up the auto-industry that's due to obsolescence by triple-digit oil prices. We should be investing billions in public transit instead of putting more cars on roads.

Isabelle: If Europe can do it, we can do it, right?

Jeff: Exactly. But here's the difference. In Europe, they've already been paying those prices for the last 10 years. When we start paying those prices, we'll become European. It's all about price. When gas is $ 7.00 a gallon, people won't have to buy my book. They'll know exactly what to do.

Isabelle: Can you tell me more about the concept of Carbon tariff on imports?

Jeff: I'm just saying this: if we're going to close coal plants and pay 3 times as much for our electricity...Now I know in Montreal you're blessed with hydro-electric power but that's not the way it is for most people in North-America outside of Quebec and Manitoba who have hydro-electric. It's coal plant or gas. California doesn't allow coal plants, so their power prices are 3 times as much as Texas. But if we are going to, all of a sudden, shut coal plants around North-America and pay 3 times as much for our electricity and then find out that China is building 800 coal plants, that does not make a whole lot of sense. So what I'm saying is we can't stop China from building coal plants, but what we can do is say : "if your steel factory gets its power from coal, from dirty power, we're going to charge you a tariff so that you pay the same price for your carbon emissions as our steel producers pay for their carbon emissions. In other words, you don't gain any economic advantage by using dirty power.

Isabelle: And what are the chances that someone will stand up to China and say that?

Jeff: The chances are excellent once we start paying 3 times more for our own power to close a coal plant. Because there's no point us making economic sacrifices for the environment if they're just going to be building coal plants like mad. Again, we can't tell them what to do, but what we can do is make sure they gain no economic advantage when they trade with us by using dirty power.

Isabelle: That would certainly fix 2 problems at once: the environmental one and the unfair trade that's going on.

Jeff: Exactly. And I think that's coming. There are some big changes and some big challenges but you know, it's not all doom and gloom. At as I say at the end of the book, in many respects, the new small world around the corner may be a whole lot more livable than the big one we're about to leave behind.

Isabelle: As a parent, I must tell you that I hope you are right. And in the meantime, I'm getting myself a ZENN Car!

Jeff: Now that makes sense! That's why I say: the key is not about the Bank of Canada, the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister of Canada or the Premier of Quebec. It's not about those guys. It's about you and me and the decisions we make everyday in our lives.

Isabelle: And I think that's the most uplifting message of your entire book. Thank you very much for writing it, and thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it

Jeff: Thank you and best of luck with your website!

Tell us what you think about Jeff's theory by next Sunday, August 30th. We will then randomly select a FINAL winner who will receive an autographed copy of  "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller."

Image source: China Digital Times

Congratulations to Kristy Smith who has won the first of three autographed copies of Jeff's book. Read Part 1 of this series and her comment here. You can win a copy too! All you have to do to be eligible is leave a comment on this post, sharing your thoughts about this issue: If you are concerned or encouraged, agree or disagree, etc. We will then randomly select a winner and send the copy. The deadline for Part 2 (this post) is next Sunday, August 23rd).

Isabelle: Do you think that such a rapid change will cause civil unrest?

Jeff: Whether is causes civil unrest or doesn't, we will have to change nevertheless. I'm quite confident that people will change. I believe that people will respond to prices. We're going to have to change our diets. We're not going to be able to eat avocadoes in February in Toronto because the cost of flying them in from Southern California or Mexico is going to make that avocado too expensive. But we'll end up eating more local produce and that means that we'll have to restore land back to farm land.

Isabelle: It also means that in Canada we're going to be eating a lot of potatoes!

Jeff: We'll eat potatoes, we'll eat corn. I'll tell you something, when I was a kid growing up in the sixties in Toronto, there were no fresh blueberries and raspberries in January, there were no avocadoes and I survived. I'm sure others will too. People will change their minds because at the end of the day, people will have no choice.

There are people who believe that we should go back to local because it cuts down on the carbon trail, and there are people who believe that we should go back to local because it will put us more in touch with our environment, and that's all fine. But I'm saying, even if you don't believe that, you're still going back to local because the whole model of a global economy doesn't work on triple-digit oil prices.

Isabelle: This is the best news I've heard in many, many months. Because what we do here at Buy Canadian First is help Canadians find goods made in Canada.

Jeff: Well, this is right up your alley because you're going to find more and more made in Canada. Of course, this is every bit as true in China as it is in Canada. Distance costs money for everybody. But in the Canadian economy that I see in the future, more and more things we consume will be made in this country.

Isabelle: That is certainly welcome news for a lot of our manufacturing members here who are struggling!

 Jeff: I think the big surprise will be that triple-digit oil prices are going to breathe new life into our rust belt. And it's going to lead to more farms, as well.

Isabelle: That's an interesting subject, because suburbia is replacing farmland almost overnight in many parts of the country. That's certainly the case here in Montreal.

Jeff: Those houses will be abandoned. And what we'll see is farm land re-claim those sub-divisions. And not in 20 years. In 4 to 5 years. In 4 to 5 years, you're going to see land starting to be reconverted back to agricultural use. And that will be as a result of soaring food prices and plunging suburban real-estate prices.

Stay tuned for more good news for Canadian manufacturers in Part 3!

In the meantime, tell us what you think about Jeff's theory by next Sunday, August 23rd. We will then randomly select a winner who will receive an autographed copy of  "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller."

Image source: Flickr Creative Commons: Dan Zen

Did you get a chance to read Jeff Rubin's book: "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller: oil and the end of globalization"? If not, you should run out and get it today. It's a great read. His book has been on Maclean's Best Seller non-fiction list for 11 weeks now!

Jeff was the Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets for almost 20 years. He was one of the first economists to accurately predict soaring oil prices back in 2000 and is now one of the world's most sought-after energy experts. He's a true Canadian with amazing vision!

I had the pleasure of spending some time on the phone with Jeff a little while back to discuss his book. I will share our conversation in a series of 3 blog posts, starting with this one.

We are also giving away 3 autographed books, one for each part of the series. All you have to do to be eligible is leave a comment, sharing your thoughts about this issue: If you are concerned or encouraged, agree or disagree, etc. We will randomly select a winner and send you your copy. The deadline for part 1 (this post) is next Sunday, August 16th). 

Isabelle: Your book is about how rising oil prices are about to transform our way of life, into something completely different. Something closer to what our grandparents probably lived...

Jeff: That's pretty accurate. We are going to see even higher oil prices, and at the end of the day there's not a whole lot we can do to prevent that. However, there is a lot we can do to make sure that when we see these higher oil prices, they don't have the same kind of devastating impact that they've had on our economy and our lives in the past. And that's about making changes in the way we live, and changes in the way we organize our economy so that we end up using less energy and in particular less oil.

And the single most important thing that we're going to do is go back to the idea of a local economy as opposed to a global economy. A global economy is where we produce something at one end of the world and sell it at another end of the world. But no matter what mode of transport we use (air, boat, train, truck) we're all burning oil. And as oil gets more expensive, distance starts to cost money. It doesn't matter if the wage rate is a lot cheaper in China, because in everything from steel to food the cost of moving things is going to be more important than the difference in the wage rate.

So a lot of things we thought were gone forever, like farms and steel mills, are soon going to be coming back because it's not going to be economic to buy our food or buy our steel from China. At the same time, everything that we now will make for ourselves will cost us a lot more money than we're used to. So we'll get back a lot of high-paying manufacturing jobs, but we'll be able to buy less with our wages because things will cost more.

We will tend to live more in the cities then in the suburbs because we won't be able to afford to commute 40 miles back and forth to work. And as people leave the suburbs, and food prices continue to rise, then ultimately many of those sub-divisions will be returned to the farm lands that they were 30 or 40 years ago.

Isabelle: What is the timeline on that?

Jeff: I think we will see triple digit oil prices again within 12 months. And when we do, I think we're going to start seeing some of these things happen very, very quickly. Because these things are not going to happen because people necessarily chose to live their lives this way, these things are going to happen because the economic reality of triple-digit oil prices are going to leave people with no choice but to change their way of living.

Stay tuned for Part 2...

In the meantime, tell us what you think about Jeff's theory by next Sunday, August 16th. We will then randomly select a winner who will receive an autographed copy of  "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller."

Hier fût une journée trépidante dans nos bureaux! Jessica Brown, journaliste à Radio-Canada (anglophone) nous a rendu visite pour une interview.

La fin Novembre est traditionnellement une période de magasinage très occupée, spécialement chez nos voisins du Sud avec le phénomène du Black Friday (le vendredi suivant l'Action de Grâce, ou les aubaines abondent). Les canadiens habitants près de la frontière américaine la traversent souvent en cette période de l'année pour leur magasinage des Fêtes. Mais cette année, dans le climat d'incertitude économique que l'on connaît, nous aimerions beaucoup voir les consommateurs canadiens demeurer au pays et faire leurs achats localement afin d'appuyer leur économie locale. C'est logique, non? C'est ce que j'ai exprimé à la journaliste de Radio-Canada. Visionner l'entrevue ici.

Je suis vraiment emballée que les médias s'intéressent à ce mouvement grandissant qui favorise l'achat de produits fabriqués au Canada. L'attention médiatique confirme cette tendance et met en évidence la nécessité d'appuyer les manufacturiers canadiens de toute taille.

Que pensez-vous du vendredi noir?  Rechercherez-vous des cadeaux faits au Canada durant la période des Fêtes? Faites-nous part de vos commentaires!

Oui, c'est à vous que je m'adresse! Je sais que vous recherchez activement des produits fabriqués au Canada. La tendance est claire et c'est fantastique! Alors, est-ce que vous faites votre part? Avez-vous demandé aux détaillants de votre localité de remplir davantage leurs tablettes de produits fabriqués au Canada? Êtes-vous conscient du pouvoir que vous détenez en tant que consommateur pour influencer le type de produits qui se retrouveront dans les magasins au détail?

Cette tendance est un authentique mouvement communautaire, et doit faire son chemin à partir DE LA BASE jusqu'au sommet de la chaîne d'approvisionnement. La bonne nouvelle c'est que les consommateurs comme vous et moi détenons le vrai pouvoir face aux produits qui nous sont proposés; c'est donc à nous de l'utiliser! Avez-vous déjà demandé à votre épicier du coin de se procurer une de vos marques favorites et d'être surpris de la retrouver sur les tablettes à votre prochaine visite? Ne soyez pas surpris: les choses fonctionnent ainsi!

C'est donc à nous de demander aux commerçants d'offrir le type de produits que nous désirons voir sur les tablettes. Et s'ils vous répondent qu'ils ne savent pas où se procurer de tels produits, n'hésitez pas à les référer à achetonscanadiendabord.ca : nous avons plusieurs fabricants et artisans à leur présenter!

Dans le contexte de ralentissement économique actuel, nous devons porter une attention particulière à la façon dont nous dépensons notre argent. Ainsi, assurons-nous de soutenir notre propre économie afin de conserver nos emplois pour pouvoir continuer à acheter des produits fabriqués au Canada. C'est à nous de faire entendre nos voix! Laissez-nous savoir comment se déroule votre campagne personnelle!

Image courtoisie de Creative Commons, Flickr

La semaine dernière, j'ai eu le plaisir de participer au tournage d'un épisode de l'émission Active-toi produite par la télévision Franco-Ontarienne. La série s'adresse aux ados et chaque épisode traite d'un enjeu social et politique qui les touchent. Nous avions été invités à élaborer sur le thème de la consommation locale et de ce que ça représente aux yeux des jeunes de 11-14 ans, en utilisant notre site Web comme outil de recherche de produits faits au Canada. L'épisode sera diffusée durant la saison 2008-2009 et je mettrai ce billet à jour dès que j'aurai plus de détails.

Entre-temps, voici un petit mot de nos 3 participants sur leur expérience :

Bonjour cher lecteur d'Achetons Canadien d'Abord,

Nous voulons vous renseigner sur notre recherche. Nous cherchions de la pâte à modeler et de la compote de pommes produites à moins de 100 km de Verdun. C'était difficile de trouver des produits d'ici. Nous avons fait une recherche dans une de nos maison et sur 20 items aucun n'était du Canada, même pas la compote de pomme même si les pommes sont en saison en ce moment! Cela nous a fait beaucoup réfléchir sur le fait que le Canada fait beaucoup de produits mais les autres produits d'ailleurs sont plus populaires, peut-être car ils sont moins chers.

Acheter localement c'est bien parce que ça crée des emplois et c'est meilleur pour l'environnement car nos produits font moins de voyage. Si toutes les semaines, chaque famille québécoise remplaçait 20$ d'achats de biens provenant de l'extérieur par la même valeur en produits québécois, plus de 100 000 emplois pourraient être créés.

En conclusion, c'est un sujet très important à aborder. Nous espérons vous avoir fait réfléchir sur le sujet.

Sabrina, Jérémy et Naomie

 

En passant, les jeunes ont trouvé leur pâte à modeler chez Bojeux Inc., dont l'usine est située à Anjou. C'est là qu'est fabriquée la fameuse pâte à modeler Tutti Frutti aux parfums tellement appétissants qu'on voudrait la manger!

Je tiens à remercier Caroline Bâcle et son équipe de nous avoir offert une si belle vitrine pour faire connaître notre site Web. Merci aussi à Sabrina, Jeremy et Naomie, 3 jeunes super-dynamiques et sympatiques!

Bon magasinage...local!