I've tried to be a patriotic consumer, really I have. But I face one fundamental difficulty when I try to 'Buy Canadian' - I can't find products that are 'Made in Canada'.

Here's an example: Before I went on holiday a few summers ago, I decided to equip myself with a new wardrobe. I embarked on a shopping expedition with my wife who insists - quite wisely - on acting as my arbiter of good taste.

My base of operations was our main shopping mall, where I visited every single store that sells men's clothing, looking for short-sleeved shirts. Whenever I purchase clothing I always check the label to see where it was made. This is partly for ethical reasons - I don't want to endorse the manufacture of goods in Third World sweatshops - but also because I wish to support local manufacturing industries whenever possible.

In all, there were at least a dozen shops selling the type of shirt I was looking for. I duly checked the labels of approximately 30 shirts, finding that they were made in China, Bangladesh, Morocco, Malayasia, Sri Lanka, India, Hong Kong and the Philippines. But not one was made locally.

The stores I visited don't all have bases in Asia or America or even continental Europe. These are stores with branches on every major high street.

Why do these retailing staples choose to manufacture their clothes overseas? Is it because they consider local craftsmen inferior to those in the Philippines? Do they have less faith in home-grown talent than I do? Even if this were so, the companies in question dare not ever admit it.

It would not surprise me if the real reason why these stores that we are all familiar with and that we all frequent look abroad for suppliers is financial - they consider those in their own country are too expensive; that is, the cost of production is too high and eats into their profit margins. Just because a company's head office is in Canada, its stores are in Canada and its sales staff are based in Canada doesn't mean that you're buying Canadian if the products are made abroad. Even if you were to visit some of the 'classier' stores that bear the names of well-respected famous local fashion designers, you'll find that their high-priced merchandise is made in the Far East.

Even if you ignore the patriotic angle, isn't this a short-sighted policy? Workers in Canada become unemployed because the firm they supply has transferred production to another continent. But workers are consumers, too; so if they aren't earning, they aren't buying.

We're all guilty of endorsing this corporate lack of patriotism if we fail to pay attention to a product's source of origin. Check the labels of garments in your wardrobe - the shirts, the pants, the dresses, the baseball caps, the trainers - see what I mean? How many of us even think to find out where the things we buy come from? (The ultimate irony: the England football team's shirt and replicas are manufactured in China.)

Of course, this doesn't occur solely in the clothing industry. It seems that nearly every day a major Canadian company announces that it is moving its call centres or administration offices to the subcontinent. Meanwhile, one of British compatriots, who is a much lauded entrepreneur, businessman and the inventor of an innovative vaccuum cleaner - for which he has been knighted - has moved his company's production to Malaysia.

My personal epiphany came after reading Naomi Klein's 'No Logo', which reveals the conditions that Western companies - and, by extension, consumers - force people in the Third World to work in. But I'm not talking about human rights here - I'm describing a slow, short-sighted economic drain.

So as a consumer what can you do about this? If you think that this all comes down to money, then vote with your wallet or purse. Write to the heads of the high street companies and insist thay they transfer the bulk of their production back home. Threaten to boycott any of their products that aren't made in the United Kingdom.

The destination of my holiday - Italy - seems to take a different view to us here in Canada (and my native United Kingdom): Many stores over there sell clothing that is Italian-made. There are two possible reasons for this: Italian labour is cheaper than foreign labour (unlikely) or Italian consumers are proud of their compatriots' handywork.

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Always read the label

Checking the label on products often reveals a surprising source of origin.

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