Canadian importing companies must really be making money hand over fist these days. Despite the Canadian dollar being at an almost-three-decade high, the prices for most things haven't budged. Books and electronics are particular examples that come to mind. Even with Chapters giving a double discount recently, it would still have been cheaper for me to buy books in the US and pay a 10% duty on them at the border, because of the huge difference in sticker price which reflects a 65- or 70-cent dollar. The best price I can get on a particular DJ CD player pair in Canada is $821 CDN with GST and shipping, but I can get the same thing in the US for $478 US with shipping to any US address.

I'm feeling a bit screwed. The company I work for is a manufacturing company which exports its products, so their (and thus my) pocketbook is hurting because of the effective loss of revenue vis-a-vis expenses. But am I getting the benefit of my bigger dollars, since I'm getting fewer of them? Nope!

We need more purchasing power, read people, in this freaking country.