An anti-racism campaigner and trailblazer in the South Asian media industry has now taken the lead to encourage her listeners to shop local, for boosting the provincial economy that is struggling to recover from the pandemic.  

Wearing a Buy BC apron in her video message to the public, Spice Radio CEO Shushma Datt has urged them to avoid cross-border shopping during the holiday season, and rather buy goods and services locally to help Canadian business.  

Ravi Kahlon, the minister for jobs and economic recovery, applauded Datt on social media, calling her a “champion” for Buy BC, which is the provincial government initiative.  

In the video posted on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, Datt can be seen laying out juices and dairy products and a bag of fruits grown in BC to make the point.  

“I was thinking we live in this country, work here and we spend all our money outside of Canada. Why do we do that and how does it affect us? If we shop locally, we would support the local businesses. If we shopped outside of Canada, we would be hurting our economy,” she can be heard saying in the footage.   

Datt also emphasised that it was important to save jobs that are going to be lost.  

Datt had previously launched a Hands Against Racism campaign in 2015 that continues to grow. She has also received a provincial award for that initiative. In order to the encourage local economy, she is currently offering special advertisement packages for small businesses that are fighting to recover from the financial crisis caused by COVID 19.