Canada is in an economic war with the United States. Every dollar of public money sent to an American-owned company is a dollar that weakens our side. Ontario's Ford government awarded a $66-million sole-vendor contract to Staples, owned by New York private equity firm Sycamore Partners, while simultaneously urging Ontarians to buy Canadian. That hypocrisy isn't just embarrassing; it's actively undermining the national effort. Qualified Canadian and Indigenous suppliers exist, want the work, and have asked for the chance to compete. Ontario's 80,000 elementary teachers deserve suppliers who are on Canada's side. And Canadian children deserve to learn in classrooms where the pencils, paper and crayons were bought Canadian, not as an afterthought, but as a matter of principle. If Queen's Park won't hold the line on buying Canadian when it controls its own $66-million contract, it has no standing to ask the rest of us to do it at the grocery store.
