Originally Posted by plumbum 
i think alot of people forget too. that our lovely governmnet is alot of the cause for higher prices. we are taxed to death here. i cant remember the exact number but we basically give about 75% or more of every dollar we earn to the cdn government. this happens in one way or another. and we get taxed on taxes too. that blows me away. my wholesalers pay gst, pass it on to me, i pay gst, pass it on to the customer, the customer pays gst and eats it. no passing it there. yes the government credits gst to my wholesaler and myself but there is still some overlap. and i cant even fathom the amount of taxes that get retaxed. import taxes, duties etc.... so anyway our higher prices typically are because of our own government. gm, ford etc... take that into account when posting msrp's, so i have been told.lol.
as for the textile prices. my wife just came back from a shopping trip to the states. our governmnet has dutied and levied textiles to about 20% to help protect our textile industry.
food prices. i wouldnt want to trade our inspections and safeties for american ones. they are alot more lenient to hormones, additives etc... than our government is. as well we import alot of our food. so higher cost.
Yu bring up some good points and it goes to show that we are effected at both ends. However I could easily dispute a couple of your comments as I have a connection to the industry. Especially on food, since we import a lot of our food from the US. Not to mention Mexico who has been found on occasion to still be using human waste for fertilizer. As for textiles, most come out of third world countries. Do we impose high duties and taxes on developing countries?
Point is that we need to put pressure on both our government and suppliers of goods. We all watched our finance minister try to pass the buck when he said they were "talking" with retailers. Nice way to avoid the tax issues.
Like I said, at the end of the day I want similar economic advantages. I am willing to pay a slightly higher price for certain things due to quality etc.. My problem lies with the GROSS differences and no one being to offer concrete evidence as to why. I'm tired ot hearing "it doesn't work like that" but on one being able to tell me how it does work!!! Like Jeremy stated, he has spoken with GM higher ups and they are not offering any explanations, not even to the very people that rep them.