More expensive?

Making those awful little Japanese character Olympic mascots in China is yet another mistake by the Vancouver Olympic committee. A cold shouldered affront to BC talent. It's like the Campbell government's internal policy is, 'never BC'. (resulting in that Mexican designer company coming to town and thinking the Northwest Territories inukshuk at English Bay was a BC emblem for our Olympics) Of course we can't show you those horrid lil critters because of the Olympic police who prevent that kind of thing.
VANNOC want everyone to get on board our Olympic program and support it, yet it's hard to do with British Columbians being constantly excluded from the process.
Would it really have been more expensive to produce them here? Jim Sinclair of the BC Federation of labour in honesty says yes, they would cost a little more by being produced here. He knows there are many aspects of that cost that actually make them cheaper.
Chinese toys are under fire right now because of the toxicity of many of their plastics. Every week we find another recall and even Mattel is reflecting that in sales. A recent poll showed that most parents are shying away en mass from buying Chinese toys this year. We know that the standards in Canadian production are very high. We know that they are very low in China and indeed, we have no way of monitoring them, let alone policing them. For all we know, those mascots are stuffed with rat fur.
But like the contract for the new BC ferries, ALL the money is going offshore. And now British Columbians won't share one dollar of the manufacture of those little oriental dolls. Had they been produced here, BC workers would have been paid, and spent some of that Canadian money on other things, patronizing local restaurants, buying fridges, home improvements, etc etc. The money would have dispersed back into OUR local economy for the benefit of British Columbians instead of into some Chinese company's pockets.
That is where the cost is truly assessed. How money filters through to you and me from major projects must be considered in the cost analysis.
Wouldn't it have been better to have a sticker on a British Columbia representative mascot that said, 'Proudly Made in Canada'?

And besides, those so called mascots are downright UGLY!