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Canadian Dollar Reaches Parity with US$

Posted by kdawson on from the who's-loony-now-eh dept.

boxlight writes in to mark the occasion when the Canadian dollar hit parity with the US dollar for the first time in 31 years. The article notes that Canada has run a budget surplus in each of the last 10 years. "This is actually bad for the profits of Canadian corporations that sell their products to the US for US dollars (Canada sells far more to the US that the US sells to Canada); but it means us Canucks will get cheaper Macs as the Canadian prices get closer to US prices with every new release."

8 of 702 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Article is useless without a graph! by kebes · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Here's a graph.However it doesn't show parity because different markets trade at slightly different values, as explained in this news item:

    "Currency trading is an over-the-counter market," a Bank of Canada spokesperson told CBCNews.ca. "It's not like the TSX." So there can be small discrepancies depending on the trades the data source monitors.
    However that article mentions that "The loonie briefly reached $1.0003 US on foreign exchange markets shortly before 11 a.m. ET, the Bank of Canada said." and TFA says "The Canadian dollar reached $1.0002, before retreating to trade at 99.93 U.S. cents at 11:01 a.m. in New York." So that narrows down the approximate moment when parity was reached.

    At present it's just below parity (0.9986), but the expectation is for the Canadian dollar to exceed the US dollar in the near future.
  2. Re:Benefits to a cheaper dollar by benzapp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem is we have no native industry for the vast majority of things Americans desire. We also are a net importer of food and energy.

    Someday, countries like Canada with lots of wheat will want something besides debt instruments in exchange for their goods. So too will countries like Saudi Arabia want something of tangible value in exchange for their oil.

    Rapidly rising prices of foreign goods may someday bring back American industry, but that is a generation away. We have too few engineers and no manufacturing infrastructure. We will have to train a whole new class of workers and build many new factories. This doesn't happen overnight.

    --
    I don't read or respond to AC posts
  3. Re:About time by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I still want to know why all the books in the book store, and magazines, have the US price at 2/3 of the Canadian price, when the exchange rate hasn't been that bad in years.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  4. cheaper Macs by denisbergeron · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not at all !

    Goods are allways at higher price in Canada.

    Look at cars, even if no border tax exist for foreing company to import car in Canada (or in the USA) all car have better price and better warrenty in the USA than in Canada. Go to jeep.ca or toyota.ca and try to build a car and then compare it with jeep.com ou toyota.com for a 30k car in the USA you will buy 36K in Canada (plus taxes).
    Samething for everything from Apple, you got 10% to 30% of foreing charge when you buy in Canada.

    And don't try to buy it at Amazon.com, they don't send thing like that in Canada, you must buy at Amazon.ca.

    Try this Ipod Nano at future shop 219$ (or BestBuy.ca)

    Same Ipod nano at BestBuy.com at 149$

    Even if the Can$ is higger thant the US$ price a cheapper in USA, That's before taxes, and the overall business etablishment price is lower in Canada.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
  5. Whose deficit is it, anyway? by fm6 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anybody else think it's ironic that at a time when people are resisting government run health care because of the expense, the Canadians are running a budget surplus — despite have government run health care?

    1. Re:Whose deficit is it, anyway? by ShieldWolf · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It depends what you mean by a 'joke'. :P

      The US spends more on its military than the rest of the world COMBINED. As a matter of percentage of GDP the Canadian government spends less than other NATO members on average, but we spend more than Israel does in dollar terms (bet you wouldn't have guessed that one).

      Truth is Canada spends less on our military because WE DON'T HAVE TO. With the cold war over there is no immediate threat to our country. Unlike the US we don't try to project our national policies externally for the most part so we don't need 12 nuclear powered aircraft carriers etc.

      Having said that to address your main point this is not the reason why we have a budget surplus. Canada used to have a small military AND a budget deficit because we had lots of wasted spending on social programs and not enough revenue. We increased some taxes and ALSO cut spending and now everything is golden (similar to the state of affairs in the US in the late 90s). That you guys blew the opportunity to be in a smiliar situation by massively cutting taxes and increasing discretionary spending is your own fault, don't blame it on military expenditures.

      --
      just = (My)Opinion.toCents();
    2. Re:Whose deficit is it, anyway? by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The US spends the highest percentage in the world of it's GDP on healthcare. I don't think military expenses or not has anything to do with it.

      --
      It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
      Be yourself no matter what they say
  6. Re:Article is useless without a graph! by s.bots · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There was a short blurb in the paper the other day about how you could buy an Audi S4 in Great Falls for around $48,000 USD, and here in Calgary the same car will set you back $72,000 CAD. There were a couple other examples (Nissan Murano $35,000 USD vs. $50,000 CAD, BMW something $58,000 USD vs. $68,000 CAD)