Canadian Dollar Now Worth More than American Dollar!

Exchange Rate (Google)

Wow, I never thought I'd see this happen. I guess its yet another sign that the endless piles of debt our nation has been relying on is overburdening the economy. The fed should just stop printing money for a year or so at this point

Man this sucks. This isn't the first time this has happened either. This will be very bad for the Canadian economy in many different sectors from Manufacturing to Tourism.

When the dollar is low, mountains of money are made on exports and the tourist trade. When the dollar is high exports and the tourist trade languish to some extent, depending on what it is you are selling, but a high dollar presents a good opportunity to pay down some of the national debt, thereby reducing carrying charges on said debt.

I live in Toronto, but I haven't heard that chorus of happy voices clamoring for a pay-down orgy on the debt. Somehow I don't think those voices will be raised. Paying down the debt isn't glamorous, plus it requires thinking more than one step ahead, which is like a "whatever, . . . so boring, notion. I mean, thinking itself . . . ugh!"

Usually Prime Ministers who reduce the national debt have to be ruthless and sneaky SOB's who really know how to misle the public and treat them like the lunkheads they are.

[edit on 24-9-2007 by ipsedixit]

Yeah, wheres Chretien when you need him eh? At least our debt isn't as bad as the Americans. I really wish that Harper tried to pay down the debt more rather then cutting the GST. Bah.

I heard an announcement today that Prime Minister Harper is going to use some of his budget surplus to make payments on the national debt. I believe he expects to save something like $700 million dollars in interest payments by doing so.

The fact that there is a budget surplus is seen by taxpayer advocate groups as proof that Canadians are overtaxed.

Kudos to Harper though. Why be saddled with all those interest payments, when you can reduce them?

Overtaxed. Well considering the services we get back, then yes I agree. I would like our surplus spent on a National Transit Strategy as well as a "Ghetto Redevelopment Program" like what my city is doing with Regent Park in Toronto in addition to paying down the debt. We could've done all three if harper didn't push his Tax cuts through.... Still haven't seen the difference in prices in even large items yet. As I suspected, the stores are pocketing the difference but that's a different issue.

[edit on 27-9-2007 by sardion2000]

This is going to get worse. The funny thing is that Harper might actually benefit from this. If he loses an election in the next year or so(a probability) and things REALLY tank, whoever is in power will be held accountable.