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Most Canadians favour US dollar as official currency

Ajit Jain
India Abroad Correspondent in Toronto

Majority of the Canadians advocate the adoption of the US dollar as the country's official currency, concludes a National Post-Compass poll released on Monday morning.

The survey also suggests that most of the country's business leaders do not expect the battered Canadian dollar to make any significant gain over the next two years.

The Canadian dollar used to sell at 5 per cent premium over US dollar several years back. It is now being traded at less than 65 US cents and its value keeps on fluctuating.

It is interesting that Bank of Canada governor David Dodge, who as deputy minister of finance was a right hand man of Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin till a few months back, himself said that the benefits of a separate Canadian dollar could diminish within a generation as North America's economies integrate.

It is important for the outside world to comprehend how dependent Canadian economy is on the US: Canada-US trade is worth more than $1 billion a day and that means 82 per cent of Canadian trade is with the US.

Compare this with Canada-India two-way trade: mere $1.7 billion annually!

Compass polled 400 executives in May and June after Doge's statement for a common currency of which 45 per cent favoured adopting US currency: 'a good idea', they reportedly said.

But 42 per cent opposed it. The remainder 13 per cent were either neutral or did not provide a response, reveals a front-page report in the National Post, that jointly conducted the survey with Compass.

Quebec has repeatedly suggested, part of its sovereignty efforts, that it would like to retain Canadian currency in an independent Quebec.

The National Post report rightly argues that Quebecers are most likely to favour using the US dollar as that would end an argument with the Canadian federalist government headed by Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

Chretien has used this argument forcefully against the separatist Parti Quebecois in case Quebecers want to separate, they can't have an advantage of economic linkages with Canada: it is like having the cake and eating it too!

In reply to a question whether they expect Canada to have its own currency in 20 to 30 years, 44 per cent of respondents reportedly said they believe the US dollar will have displaced the Canadian dollar and 38 per cent predicted Canada will retain a separate currency.

Forty-five per cent of those polled said for them the most important reason to keep the Canadian dollar is to maintain the country's independence, while 11 per cent argued that a separate currency is part of national pride.

Six per cent thought it was part of maintaining control over monetary policy and 3 per cent argued that a switch-over to a single currency would involve huge cost to the Canadian tax payers.

It is not the first time a debate over a common currency has taken place in Canada. Time and again economists have debated the common currency issue.

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