7 years ago on a missions trip to Brazil I had my first real encounter with Americans. Since then I’ve known many and a lot of my closest friends are American. I’m even married to an American! Through the years I’ve grown accustomed to the seemingly obligatory ‘Canada jokes’. You know, the ones about igloos, sled dogs and the like. A common one occurred when an American friend would hear about the price of something in Canadian dollars. The response would often be something like, “$1 canadian, what’s that, about 2 cents American?”. Over the past year the loonie (Canadian dollar) has been steadily climbing and I’m sad to say (not really) that new jokes will have to be found. On September 28th, for the first time in 30 years the Canadian dollar traded higher than the U.S. Today the US dollar buys only 97 cents Canadian, a far cry from the days of a nearly 50% difference.
Sounds like a good thing off the bat, but the rising Canadian dollar means many different things to different people. The export business for example is feeling the hit, my dad is a truck driver and it has drastically slowed things down for him. It used to be a great economical choice for American importers to purchase from Canada but now it is cheaper just to buy domestically. My dad has gone from working far too much in a work week to only a couple of runs each week. While it may be great for him physically (he really needs the break), the banks probably aren’t as concerned with that as they are about receiving payment for the mortgage.
So how has it affected us? Well, we’ve definitely seen both sides of it. Buying necessities online has suddenly become the economical choice. Even with shipping it becomes a great deal. A recent purchase of mine on eBay of $137US only cost me $133 CAD. A few years ago the same purchase could have run me close to $200 CAD. But, the savings we’re gaining there we’re losing else where. Close to three quarters of our support comes from the U.S. and we used to receive decent amount of dollars from the exchange rate. Now, instead of the few hundred extra dollars we are used to receiving we actually lose a bit. It’s an interesting subject,
So how has the exchange rate affected you?
On this day..
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I went shopping in the US. Now that the dollar is so high, I am hoping to travel to New York sometime soon, since it won’t be that expensive.
we’re going through much the same thing as your dad… things are slowing down for us, and making it hard to find loads to take! I got last night off, but am heading to Brooklyn, NY to make up for it today… so it stretched my week out by an extra day… less weekend for me!
good topic of discussion normis!!
I feel remorse for all the jokes I made :(
Sorry Norm and to the rest of Canada as well.
Thats ok Jake, I forgave you long ago :o)
Adam, do you have to take a lot more of those NYC runs to make up for the slow weeks?
when they’re available… we get a 100 dollar bonus for heading into “the hellhole” as it’s lovingly called!…