OK, so I’m going to need help with this one. I have heard nothing but doom and gloom for at least the last 20 years should the Canadian Dollar ever reach par with the U.S. Dollar. Businesses would crash, bankruptcies increase and basically we would lose our largest trading partner. Ok, so we have not been without our problem’s however these have mostly been attributed to the overall decline in world markets and economies.
As reported in AFP, November 10 “Canada posts surprising trade surplus as sales to US rise. A spike in US-bound exports turned Canada’s overall trade balance to an unexpected surplus in September, its first since the start of the year, a government agency said Thursday. Total merchandise exports grew 4.2 percent in the month to CAN$39.7 billion, their highest in almost three years, while imports declined 0.3 percent to CAN$38.5 billion. As a result, the overall balance went from a deficit of CAN$487 million in August to a surplus of CAN$1.2 billion in September, Statistics Canada said.”
http://us.news-republic.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=1&articleid=1515674
Statistics Canada pointed to an almost doubling of the country’s trade surplus with the United States for the turnaround, as US-bound exports increased 5.0 percent and imports decreased slightly. If figures for its largest trading partner are excluded, Canada’s trade deficit actually fell only slightly to CAN$3.1 billion, still in the red but the lowest level so far this year.
So here is my take! As long as the Canadian Dollar and the U.S. Dollar had a significant delta government, wholesalers, retailers etc. had something to blame for the huge differences in cost of goods and services in each country. It is also a lot easier to fool people if they see that a Canadian Dollar is only worth $0.60 U.S. The fact of the matter is, and has been emphasized in this blog, we have been, and continue to be ripped off by virtually everyone in the chain.
A buck is a buck! Buy where it goes the furthest.
