Surging loonie causes flap in US-Canada trade
As sales manager of a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Buffalo, New York, 20 miles from Canada, Irene Connors has experience of the pain and the gain caused by the soaring Canadian dollar.
The surging loonie, named after the loon bird on the one dollar coin, has put a dent in Ms Connors’s shopping trips to Toronto, a two-hour drive away.
The currency hit a 30-year high of almost 96 US cents last Monday, heightening speculation it is headed for parity with the US dollar for the first time since November 1976. The loonie hit a low of 62 US cents little more than five years ago.
Mr Connors used to drive to Toronto once every two months but a trip last weekend was her first in almost two years. “It doesn’t make it as much of a bargain when the money is at par,” she says.
On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz of Buffalo is one of many US car dealers – some as far afield as Chicago and New York – inundated by Canadian buyers seeking to take advantage of a widening gap between US and Canadian car prices.
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