Alternatives I Have Personally Tried And Liked
In Person Groceries > Basically anywhere but Walmart. Look for “Product of Canada” on packaging. “Made in Canada” is 2nd best. If the company is Canadian that is the 3rd best. For produce with no packaging ask someone at the store.
Ordering Groceries > Voila if you’re not in BC, Save-On-Foods if you are in BC. I use Voila and it even has a shop Canadian tab.
Amazon > Home Hardware, Princess Auto, KMS Tools, BMR, and Lee Valley for in person shopping. If you’re going to order online use the Canadian Tire App.
Google Drive > Sync. If anyone uses someone’s referral code they both get 1 extra GB so here’s mine. https://www.sync.com/?_sync_refer=181a30ae0
X > Mastadon / Bluesky
Netflix and Prime > Crave and CBC Gem
Disney Plus > Ahoy Matey, Sail the Seas
Uber Eats > Skip the Dishes
Burger King / Mcdonalds > Any of these companies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_restaurant_chains
Starbucks / Mcdonalds Coffee > A local cafe or second Cup. Tim Hortons is owned by an American company.
Subway > Mr Sub
Shop local for clothes and shoes (but if you’re tall like me, there is much more work to do to find tall clothes online).
What I’m Trying Next
Youtube Premium for my Smart TV > https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube (for PC just use Firefox with ublock origins)
Play Books For Audio Books > Libby with a library card
Amazon > https://www.singingpebblebooks.ca/ for physical books
Diary Queen > A local ice cream parlour. I have one down the street from me I might try.
Google Docs > https://etherpad.org/
I’m fortunate to have set up a domain with .ca many years ago, so that’s one less thing to worry about. LOL
I switched all my Google services to either self-host or Mailbox.org (Germany) back during covid.
I’m still using Bitwarden, but have looked at 1Password (Canadian, BTW), and I just really don’t want another subscription service and don’t feel comfortable self-hosting my password manager. I was using Keepass many years ago, and that might be another option for me.
My next big move will likely be to move away from Windows to Linux (attempt #50🤭 ) on at least one PC, but a handful of Windows-only apps really act as a barrier.