By William Corden
I just went down to the local foreign exchange shop to buy some US Dollars for a trip I’ll be taking next week…. I found out to my surprise that it now costs Can$1.4169 to buy a single greenback dollar, or one Canadian Dollar now gets you about 70 cents US
Back in 2007 these currencies were at parity.
In 2011, 1 Canadian dollar actually bought you $1.06 of our neighbour’s currency, because of the strength of our energy production and commodities power.
Since then it’s fallen off a cliff, mainly due to ridiculous green policies, and its current parlous state makes travel to the US- something that used to be a cheap getaway- no longer worth the effort.
Inflation in the US has made most items more expensive than they are here at home.
So cross border shopping, when combined with the third degree you get from the border guards doesn’t have the pull it once had.
If the Canadian political system (no matter what stripe it may be) could get its act together and release our energy and mineral resources we’d be back at parity again in no time.
By the way, the once invincible South African Rand has depreciated by more than 50% in the past 15 years . it used to be backed by gold but somehow all that gold has gotten into the wrong hands (I wonder who?).
People who live middle class lives there can’t afford to get out because the money from their quite often opulent homes translates into peanuts if they want to re-settle elsewhere.
I don’t think we match the South African government for corruption but we certainly more than match them in economic incompetence.
6 Responses
Well, there are winners and losers — Canadian exporters are likely very happy — but importers, not so much. USD nosedived against euro lately — which is not good — but again, it depends on who you ask — EU tourists likely love it!
Hi Lev,
Yes, it’s a matter of which side you look at it from. But I forgot to add that our super suave Prime Minister Carney, was the governor of the Bank of Canada during its most precipitous fall .
He’s been behind most of the fiscal policies that have turned our dollar into confetti., and here he is at the green wheel , now captain of the sinking ship 😊
What are we exporting!
“Since then it’s fallen off a cliff, mainly due to ridiculous green policies”
Nailed it.
Hi Jamie,
I have to clarify and say that we do need some modest green policies, otherwise there wouldn’t be a tree left standing in Canada.
But the current policies of our country would have us riding 30 miles on a bike to work and heating our homes with candles ( and some would do away with even the candles)😊
Saying ” ridiculous green” is redundant. CO2 is the gas of life and ” greenies” are trying to stomp it out of the atmosphere. Morons.