Cansumer was created to provide the best independent, consumer-focused and Canada-focused product recommendation service by finding and reviewing the best products available in Canada, helping Canadians save time and money, and promoting Canadian stories and businesses.
Our work has been featured in publications including Toronto Sun, PCMag and Teksavvy.
Who are we?
I’m Alex Wideman, the founder and editor-in-chief of Cansumer. I’m a consumer rights advocate, serial entrepreneur and educator.
I’m passionate about helping others save time and money and have been creating consumer-focused online resources for over a decade. I started this website in 2018 to help other Canadians save time and money.
I have a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Queen’s University, have run my own online business for over 10 years and currently reside just outside the GTA.
Every time I’m about to purchase something that costs more than a few dollars, I obsessively research the best options, put all of their prices, features and ratings into a spreadsheet and compare them side-by-side to ensure they will:
- accomplish what they’re supposed to,
- are a long-term solution (in the best case, for life), and
- are the best value for money available.
This can drive my family nuts as I typically take much longer to make an “optimized” purchasing decision. I’m not an expert in every topic published (that’s where our writers come in!), but I enjoy finding the greatest products to make life easier, more fun and more productive for the over 80,000 people who visit this website every month.
When not in the office, I can usually be found hiking or camping in a provincial park.
You can get in touch with me by email at: alex@cansumer.ca or on LinkedIn.
Why us?
The mission of Cansumer is simple: we want to help you discover, research and select the best products and services that meet your needs and budget.
Whenever possible, our reviews and recommendations feature:
- Canadian resources and statistics
- Canadian retailers and brands
- Products that are widely available in Canada
- Prices in Canadian dollars
We are constantly analyzing reviews, exploring new products and updating guides to ensure our recommendations are always as accurate and helpful as possible. We do the due diligence to save you the time and stress it takes to find the best and focus on what’s best, rather than what’s new.
- Mission and vision statement
- Detailed product & service reviews
- Free and unbiased
- Promoting Canadian stories
Mission and vision statement
Cansumer’s mission is to help Canadians find the best products and services.
Cansumer’s vision is to make Canada’s marketplace transparent, fair, safe and sustainable by educating, engaging and empowering consumers.
Helping them navigate the marketplace, but also change it by voting with their wallets.
Detailed product & service reviews
Our recommendations are made through vigorous research, interviewing, testing and analysis by our team of subject-matter experts, researchers and writers. In addition to our own expertise, we include data from the best editorial sources around and pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people.
We look for what we think is best for most people. We aim to recommend high-quality things that warrant their price and don’t push extra features you’ll rarely use, rather than overpriced, top-of-the-line models loaded with junk features. These are the same items we’d recommend to our friends and family, and the same things we’d buy for ourselves.
For every product and service there is a specific set of key factors that matter to consumers. For each product we review, we outline how it performs on each one of its key factors.
We then summarize our findings in a table or chart to make it easy to quickly compare the alternatives. Many of these factors such as pricing and availability are subject to constant change so we revisit our guides on a regular basis to ensure the information is up to date. See something that needs to be corrected? Let us know here.
Every review is as thorough as we can make it. If you ever want more information on a product, please leave a comment and we will definitely get back to you with our thoughts!
Free and unbiased
We have not taken on any outside investment (we are bootstrapping), so we have no investors or shareholders to answer to. Instead, we answer to what we consider our stakeholders: our readers, our communities and the natural environment. We take pride in delivering transparent and unbiased guides to our readers.
As an independent business, we are free from external control and influence. We do not have (and will never have) any direct financial relationships with any of the companies mentioned on our site and businesses and brands cannot pay to be mentioned or influence their reviews.
We pride ourselves on following rigorous editorial standards. We maintain a strict separation between the editorial process by which products and services are evaluated and the development of financial relationships by the business team. Writers are never made aware of any financial relationships prior to making their picks and the business team has no influence over the resulting scores and rankings.
All the information we provide is and always will be completely free. Like many other websites and services, Cansumer uses ads and affiliate programs to make money, which allows us to provide Cansumer.ca free to readers.
If readers choose to buy a product we recommend as a result of our efforts, our work is often (but not always) supported through an affiliate commission from the retailer when they make a purchase. If readers return their purchases because they’re dissatisfied or the recommendation is bad, we make nothing.
There’s no incentive for us to pick inferior products or respond to pressure from manufacturers—in fact, it’s quite the opposite. We think that’s a pretty fair system that keeps us committed to serving our readers first.
The most important thing to us is the trust we have from readers. If we were to recommend something because we are biased or lazy, readers like you wouldn’t support our work.
See: Our Advertising Disclosure
Promoting Canadian stories
Canada is consistently ranked as one of the best countries in the world to live in thanks to our democracy, rights and freedoms and emphasis on equity. We want to celebrate and support our position in the world and do our part by documenting and highlighting our culture, stories, knowledge and businesses.
Whenever possible, we focus on listing local Canadian businesses instead of large, international corporations who happen to serve your area. Local businesses often provide better, more personal service than the big guys. They know their area, their customers and truly care about them.
In addition, we point out Canada-owned/made products and services in our buying guides by marking them as:
- “Product of Canada” (product is at least 98% Canadian content as per Competition Bureau guidelines)
- “Canada Made” (product is at least 51% Canadian content as per Competition Bureau guidelines)
- “Canadian Owned” (product is at least 51% Canadian owned)
- “Canadian Company” (incorporated in Canada)
Contact us
We want to hear from you! Whether you want to recommend a product, file a complaint, or make a suggestion to help us improve, please drop us a line or follow us on:
You can reach us by:
Email: notes@cansumer.ca
Phone: 1 (855) 918-3390
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If your business’ product or service is selected by us, you can link our logo or badge on your website and social platforms.
Policies
Affiliate Disclosure
Some of the links on this product review site are affiliate links. That means that if you click on the link, and it takes you to a site where if you buy the product, we may receive a small commission – and it doesn’t cost you anything.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.ca. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Learn more about how we make money
Privacy Policy
We are dedicated to protecting the privacy of readers. Because user privacy is our top priority, we proactively embed privacy into the development and curation of our services.
At any time, all users – regardless of geographical location – can make a data subject access request. In doing so, users can access, delete, restrict, or correct all personal information that they have shared with us.
Learn more about our Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Our content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. Always seek the advice of qualified professionals with any questions you may have regarding legal, financial or medical decisions. The statements on this website have not been evaluated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada or any other government agency.
Note: All products, including those we review and recommend, may be subject to recalls or revised use recommendations. We therefore urge you to monitor any official announcements by Health Canada’s recalls and safety alerts and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for recalls that may be related to the products you purchase.