When I was a kid, shopping over the border was the thing to do. It's not now, though, even if you can avoid the duties by strapping the thing to yourself. The exchange rate alone will kill you, and that discourages a lot of people from going to the US to shop. The exchange on an electronic device will be comparable to (if not more than) the tariff we'd pay by buying it here...
(a sane canadian)
I'd venture that Canada is probably the least dense country in the world (maybe next to Russia). We're spread out all over this massive space. The only dense areas are southern ontario (toronto area) and southern bc (vancouver area). I live in rural Saskatchewan where the town-sizes probably average around 1000 (I'm guessing). Even here, where they have to run the lines so much further for a small group of people, we're getting broadband in tiny communities. So I'm pretty sure the problem has nothing to do with population density.:)
We also lead in fiberoptics (hence the much better and earlier distribution of highspeed internet) and robotics (hence the Canadarm). We also have been far ahead in banking technology, having ATM's, interac, and internet banking widespread long before the US.:)
"*I mean, how often have you seen a weather map on TV that has temperatures in Canada that are even 32 degrees? It'll be 72 in Seattle and just across the border in Vancouver it's 20 degrees."
This is most likely due to the fact that in Canada, temperature is calculated in Celsius, not Farenheit. 0 is freezing.:P
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When I was a kid, shopping over the border was the thing to do. It's not now, though, even if you can avoid the duties by strapping the thing to yourself. The exchange rate alone will kill you, and that discourages a lot of people from going to the US to shop. The exchange on an electronic device will be comparable to (if not more than) the tariff we'd pay by buying it here... (a sane canadian)
I'd venture that Canada is probably the least dense country in the world (maybe next to Russia). We're spread out all over this massive space. The only dense areas are southern ontario (toronto area) and southern bc (vancouver area). I live in rural Saskatchewan where the town-sizes probably average around 1000 (I'm guessing). Even here, where they have to run the lines so much further for a small group of people, we're getting broadband in tiny communities. So I'm pretty sure the problem has nothing to do with population density. :)
It's spelled "eh" :)
and if we talk funny, at least it's over our high speed internet lines (gotta love free phone calls... ;)
We also lead in fiberoptics (hence the much better and earlier distribution of highspeed internet) and robotics (hence the Canadarm). We also have been far ahead in banking technology, having ATM's, interac, and internet banking widespread long before the US. :)
"*I mean, how often have you seen a weather map on TV that has temperatures in Canada that are even 32 degrees? It'll be 72 in Seattle and just across the border in Vancouver it's 20 degrees." This is most likely due to the fact that in Canada, temperature is calculated in Celsius, not Farenheit. 0 is freezing. :P
Except that Nova Scotia is exactly at the OPPOSITE end of Canada from Vancouver... the joke's kinda lost...