To: Rocket Red who wrote (59256 ) 11/14/2010 11:56:58 AM From: E. Charters 3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) | Respond to We are an exporting country. We sell metal, oil, timber, agricultural produce mostly overseas. The high CDN dollar makes our products if not more expensive, then less profitable. Canada benefits more from a low dollar rather than a high, because the consumer goods we buy from Asia now are cheap enough that it does not hurt as much their increase as it does the lack of ability to make trade. If a set of steak knives made in China once cost $5.00, it doesn't matter much if the cost now is $5.25, but if oil, wheat, timber, cars, etc make 5% less money, or cost that much more, it will cut into trade enough that jobs start to be lost. Of course the very fact that we are buying Asian steak knives for less than we could draw picture of them for, has already lost us enough jobs as it is. Over the last 40 years since CDN retailers became importers of often shoddy goods made in Asia, rather than make them in Canada, we have lost 2 million jobs. Outsourcing has dropped another 500,000 in the last 15 years. The jobs involved with the importing, sales etc, are fewer and lower paying. Exports of raw materials should have increased, but I find that fewer people are working in mining and forestry than 30 years ago, so I don't see a trade off that should be happening. When I was in school there were 300 mines in Canada, now there are 75. The resources have been shut down by political philosophy which has enacted tax, environmental and other regulatory restrictions, both provincially and federally to close off access, and to make it riskier and more expensive for foreign and domestic companies to do business.
