Canadians being gouged

Can anyone in government give us an honest answer to the oft-asked question: Why is everything 30 to 50 per cent cheaper across the border?

Canadian retailers spend big bucks for emotional publicity campaigns to convince us to shop at home, but why should we when we are getting ripped off by paying up to double what we would pay in the US for the same items?

Often items manufactured in Ontario, such minivans and cars, sell for much cheaper in the States than in our own province, and no one can give us a logical explanation, other than vague political rhetoric about market idiosyncrasies, cost of shipping, tariffs, import duties, blah, blah.

We in Greater Sudbury don’t have the privilege of hopping across the border to shop as do many of our neighbours in the Sault, Windsor, Fort Erie, Sarnia and other municipalities.

According to the Sympatico website, The Loop, items ranging from booze, electronics, clothing, shoes, furniture, toys, vitamins, cigarettes, bedding, kitchen gear, diapers and books, among others, range from 20 to 50 per cent cheaper in price than the same items at home.

And let’s not forget gasoline, which, in Canada of course, just follows the market pressures and demand and is not price-controlled by big-oil, (excuse my cough) but is at least 40 per cent less expensive in the US.

Back in 2008, cars and trucks in Canada finally took a huge cut in prices when the economy tanked and the real estate bubble burst in the States.

We are all proud and happy to be Canadians, and would never change that, but if we deserve what we tolerate, why are we tolerating this discrimination in inexplicable price increases and gouging north of the border?

Whatever happened to the equalization that NAFTA was to bring about? What, if anything, are our governments doing about it?

Simon R. Guillet
Greater Sudbury