I’m in high-tech manufacturing. It sucks.
Where I live, there are no merchants along the border – just a lot of deer, moose and bear, and these beasties usually do not have anything to sell. One of my friends who works at the border hit a deer last week on the way home from work, writing off her van, so at the moment there is nothing cheerful at that border crossing.
More seriously, what I have been seeing more and more of is stores/restaurants in town either taking credit cards or directing American customers to bank/debit machines (they are ubitquitous here), so that the transactions can be made in Canadian cash. I’ve seen a few store and restaurant employees stumped as to how to figure out exchange rates.
It’s been bumping along at about 1.07 today.
The front page of the Toronto Star business section is covered with stories about “Dollar sinks gently” (referring to today’s events) and “Loonie’s rise signals end of an era” and “Greenback losing its might”. I’ve never seen anything like it in a mainstream printed paper. They might as well have said, “Welcome to interesting times”.
The chart labeled “George W Bush’s declining dollar” does not seem to be on the website, however.
Kind of makes you wonder how that scene in the Simpsons episode where they visit Toronto would play out now. You know, the one where Homer is at the CN Tower, and the Pimply Faced Kid tells him he has to leave because the tower is closing. Homer gives the kid a US dollar and the kid asks when Homer would like his wake-up call. But maybe these days, it would have to be written like this:
PFK: The tower’s about to close and you’ll have to leave.
Homer: Here’s an American dollar.
PFK: (takes the greenback, looks at it, and tosses it away) Meh. Now get out; we’re closing.
I haven’t seen that one. I’ll have to pester my friends into lending it to me. 
Now that is bizarre. Not long ago, I used to reckon on Aus$3 to the pound and US$1.40 to the pound. Now they’re rapidly converging on about $2.20 to the pound.
And the US dollar is around 93 Canadian cents. Yes, the US dollar is roughly midway between the Australian and Canadian dollars.
Well, I am thinking of going to visit my cousin in Tampa… so I can bring my hoard of loonies and try to imitate a barbarian horde all on my own.
Pimply Faced Kid: Disney World is about to close and you’ll have to leave.
Sunspace: Here’s an Loonie.
Pimply Faced Kid: Wow, Canadian money! What time would you like your wake-up call, sir?
That would almost be worth it. I still remember the reaction of my cousin’s grandson to a Canadian twenty, when they were up here for my uncle’s funeral: “That doesn’t look like real money.” That attitude irritates me a little even now.
[sub]“an Loonie”?[/sub]
Hey the Loonie is bigger now. So big that it needs the extra letter on the indefinite article. 
And Capitalization!
I think they should just make the official title for the Canadian dollar the Loonie and be done with it. Let the rest of the world know what kind of people they’re dealing with (are we people who can be considered loonies, or are we people who don’t mind being considered loonies? You’ll never know! AHHAHAHAHAHA!!!).
Today, Buchanan laid of 800 people in four of their mills in Northern Ontario until at least the end of January, and Domtar closed it’s mill in Dryden with no forseeable re-opening, all primarily due to the rise in our dollar.
We need to develop markets other than the USA, for we are too closely tied to the USA.
And thus it begins.
That is so true. We have so many immigrant communities here from so many places; why aren’t we using those connections? (At least my work tries to…) But politically, it’ll be harder.
We also need to reduce dependency on jobs and the money economy. If more people grew more of their own food and lived in more efficient houses, maybe they wouldn’t have as many bills and we could have families with just one person in the paid workforce again. And what about co-housing and co-ops and all that stuff that got shoved aside by the investment mania of the 1980s and after?
I’ll be lucky if they’ll let me into the CN Tower. (Or out again w/o beheading me . )
I have so many questions. Toronto has so many places to visit and I only have one day.
“…and in other news, Toronto residents are urged to remain indoors until this unpleasant condition passes.” :eek:
My scavenger hunt tomorrow includes tourist gifts, world-famous cheese soup for lunch, the hunt for possible sightings of Cobie Smulders, support for the Mississaugas nation (through various table games), and the answer to a question I have wondered for years…
…Just how serious are those Peak Frean cookies any way???
Peek Frean cookies are serious. Yes. That’s the perfect word. They are the cookies your grandmother places in front of Important Guests, like your teacher or your boss or the Queen, when she’s opened the formal dining room where none of your actual family are allowed to eat.
So who is Cobie Smulders again? Please don’t tell me that you’re a celebrity hound, and are going to be found in Yorkville drooling on the Ferraris and trying to break into lineups at the chic restaurants.
Heck, maybe you’ll run into her at the Shoe Museum.
The Loonie is on a downturn. Yesterday it was down to 1.65 and as of right now, it’s down to 1.6. Is the US Peso picking up steam or is the Loonie starting to look for a nice pond to land in?
You sure you’re not my brother? MiGod, your sentence reminds me of our family dinners, which were held about sixteen to twenty times a year. Take a serviette because you’ll spill, use the correct fork not your fingers, take only one at a time, pass plates properly, no crumbs, sit up straight, don’t speak unless spoken to, call your grandmother “Ma’am” when you are spoken to, and wear your tie and jacket because what if the Queen shows up? :rolleyes: Yeah, anybody else in the Commonwealth go hungry as a kid because the threat of the Queen showing up meant you were afraid to eat? I mean, you might have left crumbs somewhere, and what would Her Majesty think?
That’s another thread for another time, and boy, can I contribute!
Good Og! I’ve dispoiled a national formal treat! I’ve actually bought these and enjoyed dunking them in milk. I’m so very sorry. (please don’t tell anyones Grandmother)
She’s an actress from Canada who has the most amazing hypnotic smile… I’m sorry. What were you asking again?
No, but a very nice man did ask me for spare change as I was taking pictures od down-town Toronto. I asked if US change was ok, but he just spat & walked away.
PS – through the amazing luck (and the modern miracle of very, very long lines), I was able to get to the top of the CN tower exactly at sunset. It was amazingly beautiful, until I noticed that I was one of the few guys standing alone in a room full of couples. I remember riding up the final elevator with this one couple; the guy was scruffy but well dressed; the girl had jet black hair, amazing skin, saphire eyes, and a look of Lurve that I hadn’t seen since I was 19. In fact, I don’t remember when I have ever seen so many beautiful young women in one room in my life.
I’m back in Rochester now and I’ll be glad to get back to my wife next week. The beautiful women in Toronto are just too damn cute/tempting.
PPS- for you girls, the guard at security was a dead ringer for Matt Damon. Imagine: all that Matt Damon- ness with out all those unsightly Ben Afflect visits, or having to pretend you’e a Red Sox fan…
Glad you enjoyed your visit, Count Blucher.
In other news, the Canadian dollar has fallen to $1.035 US. Yes, that’s approximately six cents down from the peak. Looks like it was a bubble after all.