However, I do occasionally want to check in on the question of dollars and cents, and how much more–for surely it’s more and not less–I need to spend to live my Canadian life.

Here is a sampling of Canadian household goods that I picked up. Not all of these meet the gold standard of sourced in Canada, but these are at least silver medalists (manufactured in Canada). Click to embiggen:

I purchased these products at my friendly, neighbourhood Whole Foods store Choices (whoops). Collectively, they cost $41.76. Here’s the receipt (again, click to bigize):

More than $40 for six ordinary, household consumables. That’s quite pricey, eh? At least I got six cents off by bringing my own bag. Score.

I got to wondering…what would the “normal” versions of these cost at my local Save-on-Foods? I went downstairs (yes, I literally live above Save-on-Foods–I can take the elevator down) to the store and priced out the products that I would normally purchase instead of these wacky Canadian ones. Here’s what I came up with. Prices include any savings I might have enjoyed with my magic Save-on-More card:

• Speed Stick antiperspirant – $2.25
• Pears soap – 3 for $3.59, so one bar is $1.19
• Garnier Fructis shampoo (because my hair gets too much sucrose and glucose) – $4.79
• Alcan aluminum foil – $4.29
• Colgate Total toothpaste – $2.99
• Western Family toilet paper – $8.99

Add tax, and that gives me $27.44, or about 65% of what I paid at Whole Foods.

Man, I am getting hosed. Whose idea was this project?

In fairness, I knew that I’d end up spending more money on Canadian products. Hopefully I discover some that are of a higher quality, and last longer than their foreign equivalents.

Are there any Canadian products that you buy, even though they’re more expensive?