Today on April 1. 2010 the Canadian dollar drew within a penny of parity with the U.S. dollar as strong manufacturing data boosted hopes for a global economic recovery.
Taken from the speech from the throne:
“Let’s talk about the economic times we find ourselves in. You know, businesses may invest, governments may budget soundly, workers may toil, generations may perform the labours of Hercules, yet, sometimes, fortune is fickle. Just as the rain falls on the good and the bad alike so the floodwaters of recession have risen across the globe, and that includes Canada. Which doesn’t, by the way, mean our efforts had been for naught.
“Regulation and oversight of the financial system — the cause of the global crisis — was, in Canada, prudent and effective. According to the World Economic Forum, the International Monetary Fund and numerous other experts, Canada has the soundest banking sector in the world. Canada has avoided the failures of financial institutions and the vast bailouts of taxpayer money that have been necessary in so many other countries. Availability and cost of credit, while they have tightened over the recession, have begun to improve more significantly and more quickly in Canada than in most other places.
“We kept an eye on the mortgage industry. We made prudent changes to the rules to avoid the real estate bubbles that caused so much damage elsewhere in the world. And, now, in Canada, our housing sector, where the recession was lightly felt, is well into recovery. Here, our fiscal fundamentals were sound.
“Canada entered the recession with the lowest debt level of any country in the G-7, and this level dropped as we were paying down the debt. It allowed us to dramatically and permanently reduce business, personal and consumption taxes during the early phases of the global downturn. And, as a consequence, it delayed the onset of the recession in Canada until after virtually every other developed country. It also enabled us to undertake recovery measures on an extraordinary basis, in lock-step with all our fellow G-20 economies, but without imposing a needless burden on future generations. In fact, it has allowed us to produce one of the largest, most comprehensive and most effective stimulus packages in the world, while keeping our deficit and debt levels in Canada to a fraction of what they are elsewhere.
The Canadian currency has gained 25 per cent against the U.S. dollar in the past year and 22 per cent against the euro. It rose against most other major global currencies.
Taken from the speech from the throne:
“Let’s talk about the economic times we find ourselves in. You know, businesses may invest, governments may budget soundly, workers may toil, generations may perform the labours of Hercules, yet, sometimes, fortune is fickle. Just as the rain falls on the good and the bad alike so the floodwaters of recession have risen across the globe, and that includes Canada. Which doesn’t, by the way, mean our efforts had been for naught.
“Regulation and oversight of the financial system — the cause of the global crisis — was, in Canada, prudent and effective. According to the World Economic Forum, the International Monetary Fund and numerous other experts, Canada has the soundest banking sector in the world. Canada has avoided the failures of financial institutions and the vast bailouts of taxpayer money that have been necessary in so many other countries. Availability and cost of credit, while they have tightened over the recession, have begun to improve more significantly and more quickly in Canada than in most other places.
“We kept an eye on the mortgage industry. We made prudent changes to the rules to avoid the real estate bubbles that caused so much damage elsewhere in the world. And, now, in Canada, our housing sector, where the recession was lightly felt, is well into recovery. Here, our fiscal fundamentals were sound.
“Canada entered the recession with the lowest debt level of any country in the G-7, and this level dropped as we were paying down the debt. It allowed us to dramatically and permanently reduce business, personal and consumption taxes during the early phases of the global downturn. And, as a consequence, it delayed the onset of the recession in Canada until after virtually every other developed country. It also enabled us to undertake recovery measures on an extraordinary basis, in lock-step with all our fellow G-20 economies, but without imposing a needless burden on future generations. In fact, it has allowed us to produce one of the largest, most comprehensive and most effective stimulus packages in the world, while keeping our deficit and debt levels in Canada to a fraction of what they are elsewhere.
So, should Canada lock it's Dollar with the U.S. on the foreign trade table considering that the U.S. and Canada are allready #1 trading partners with each other?
And can Canada trust the U.S. to go all in with the world when it comes to import and export?
