Imagine in any other country if the currency was collapsing like the US$ is, the government would be turfed out. But I have narry heard a word on the US networks about the US$ being collapsing by almost 25% in a year. Just the high price of oil, at least half of which is due to this devalution.

However, the C$ has also strengthened against most other currencies, so we must face the fact that our economy is seen to be stronger than most. Last May the A$ was almost on par with ours, today theirs is down to 90-cents.

I was hit by currency exchange rates between the Euro and C$ when my Amex account was dinged by several thousand dollars of unauthorized charges. Amex has now picked up the difference, but it started to add up as the C$ improved against the Euro.

I do few transactions in US$, so the decline has not affected me directly. But other currencies have also been rising, a few more than the C$. My South African project has seen a conversion rate move from C$1 = 6 Rand to C$ = 5 Rand, so losing 17% in buying power is impacting that one.

But as BB has noted, it is making our travel down to the US much cheaper. And it is better to have to multiply by 1.3 than 1.5 to roughly estimate what something really costs down there.