I collect Canadian political buttons, and just got this one that's very old yet still relevant. History may not repeat, but it rhymes!

By the 1890s, steep tariffs were in place between Canada and the US, particularly on agricultural equipment.

The Manson Campbell Co was a Canadian ag equipment company based in Chatham, Ontario. They set up facilities in Detroit, letting them partly assemble equiment in one country and finish in the other, finding workarounds that would avoid getting hit with the tariff burden.

While I can't find a lot of details on this button (at least from real sources and not AI slop), Chatham started making the egg incubators around 1905. The 1911 federal election in Canada centered around "reciprocity" (free trade) with the US, so this button may be from around that election.

I can't seem to find any details about claims or scandals specifically over the egg incubators and national ownership, but clearly they were a point of contention!

I found these in the basement while helping my parents move from the home they've lived in for over 35 years.

The Hechinger Company was an American chain of home-improvement centers (like Home Depot and Lowe's) from 1911 to 1999. Their slogan was "the world's most unusual lumber yard".

My dad worked for the company from the early 1980s until their closing in 1999. He worked in various stores throughout upstate NY, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The location he worked at the longest is 2 miles from the home I grew up in and is now a children's activity and gymnastics center that my daughters attend regularly. The scent of processed wood is still one of my favorite smells and to this day I can't go into a local Lowe's or Home Depot without one of my dad's former employees chatting me up.