For the first time in 31 years, the Canadian dollar hit parity with the US dollar today (at 10:59 AM). No longer do Canadians have to put up with mockery (well, for now) :).
The funny thing is, I went to ebay.ca today to check some hardware prices and the number one search term was… Canada! That says something, and it’s good.
Consumers have taken advantage of the strong Canadian dollar to purchase goods from the US without much of a premium (well, maybe a little bit). As I work near US customs, I can attest that there has been a surge of Canadian traffic to the US over the past two-and-a-half months. My co-workers and I have put up with long border lineups, nearly two kilometers long, on a daily basis for the aforementioned time period. On the contrary, there’s no longer an incentive for Canadians to sell goods in US dollars, especially with the Canadian dollar likely exceeding the US dollar in the near future.