Monday, October 03, 2005

The call for currency union grows

The petro-dollar loonie has surpassed 85 cents U.S. and the murmur of public debate about the Canadian currency is spilling into the public realm, with economists worrying about the "Dutch Currency Disease" and talk of pegging the loonie. Fear has taken hold of the pussy Canadian commercial class - the one's who rode our woeful industrial policy of exchange rate development. Yep, that would be our manufacturers (and that would include those cultural producers - Hollywood North). These are the industries that developed handsomely behind exchange rate depreciation. These are the businesses that may not exist with a Canadian dollar at parity. These are the businesses that would be forced to improve productivity at the risk of bunkruptcy. These are the businesses that would shift capital to other cheap currency countries. And in my humble opinion, Canada would be much better off.

Yes, the resources that built this country are shining again. The commodity cycle, the surging global demand for what Canada has aplenty, is putting domestic industrial interests in a bind. That would be those damned Easterners, in the eyes of the flush Western Canadians, that ones that supplied the west with overpriced industrial goods after ramming a railroad into the region. But times have changed, and one would imagine in world of global economic integration that the politics of Canada is about to shift. The ascendancy of the West is dawning, and the best way to accommodate this fundamental challenge to regional balance is to ride the strength of the currency. It is time to push for currency union with the United States. It will be painful for the slacker commercial interests and the labour they employ, but in the end the economy will be stronger, and consumers will benefit immencely. Hey, how about union at parity?