Thanks goodness that the crisis doesn't happen at the same time as the US. Canada will benefit of what is happening in the US right now. Canada will use US as example to resolve crisis. Will adopt what works and reject what doesn't of the methods that have been trying to resolve the crisis in the US.
I'm sure you could open a US Dollar account with one of the Canadian banks. Check out The Bank of Montreal www.bmo.com they are offering a US Dollar BMO MasterCard. forex-forex --------------- Trading guru
i heard that if CAD rises, oil rises. and vice versa, because theyre interlinked. note sure if this true though
during the runup to the Canadian election Oct14/08 just as in the States there was a change from 'the environment' to the economic crisis; Stephen Harper and Conservatives were re-elected and in a matter of weeks Finance Minister Jim Flaherty changed 180 degrees from 'Canada has no problems' to admitting Canada's now in a technical recession and budget deficits are likely in 09 Ontario has the largest population, is where the auto industry is located, and tied with an umbilical cord to what will happens with the B3; while banks and mortgages are regulated differently than the US, credit has tightened considerably affecting all businesses requiring refinancing and causing problems for residential development where values have dropped and same for commercial development - will the Toronto Trump Tower be built ? as well consumer finance/cc has tightened same as US here in BC (pop 3M+) the projected surplus for the current fiscal year has declined from $1.77B in the 1st Q to $950 million at the end of the 2nd Q - down $800M - revenues - economic decline, currently in 3rd Q plus another to go, so too other provinces a guy trying to sell his $5M house dropped it by 20% to $4M and offered any realator $100K on top of their commission if they sold the house the successful recycling program while still continuing is unable to export paper, metal glass etc for recycling to China and India since prices have collapsed a further financial strain for BC is the 2010 Winter Olympics being held in BC Canada as exporter means a lower C$ is extra profits for producers and fewer Canadians doing their shopping in the US; while talking heads like to link the C$ fluctuations to the price of crude/gold i don't believe that to be the case, it's linked to the US$ the lumber industry primarily BC is dead, so too oil sands development and copper etc mines now suffering collapsed prices, some of the largest gold companies are located in Canada tho not sure how their stock prices are holding up, the price of gold is ok since this recession/depression is global Canada will suffer proportionally - autos aside as other countries tho not as bad as the UK or the US, the more significant question is whether or not there will be/are in a deflationary depression, very serious for everyone
Canada will not do very well with 10$ oil... but if we stay around 40$ low in crude and $600 low in gold, Canada should do ok. Fiscal/Monetary policy will be critical to manage and infrastructure will need to be properly maintained, but the country should prepare for the next leg higher in commodities, and probably will outperform the US. Also, new Free Trade agreements have been setup with Europe and India recently (I think - not 100% sure about this) so that would be a boon...
If I were still single, I would be happy to do my part and visit that little spinner-school teacher I knew in London, Ontario every weekend... maybe make a little donation to her needs, take her out, to a show, contribute to the local economy.
The oil bubble popped a very short while ago, so whatever impacts there are will only be seen soon. But because of a weaker canadian dollar now, oil is still a bit better priced some think. A lot of the mature oil stocks are still going to be profitable. You just won't see growth. That is of course if things don't get worse for much longer.