Loonie will Stay at Par With U.S. Dollar: Flaherty

The Canadian loonie will hover at parity with the U.S. dollar for some time to come, and deservedly so, thanks to Canada's economic strength, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the CBC Wednesday.

"This is a new world," Flaherty told reporters after speaking about controlling debt at a think-tank discussion at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. The high Canadian dollar reflects a "sound fiscal situation" in Canada, he added.
"It is unreasonable, given those fundamentals, for anyone in Canada to expect the Canadian dollar to go back to the days when it was significantly devalued vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar ... It makes sense for the Canadian dollar to be much closer to the U.S. dollar than it was for some years."

The Canadian dollar hit a 2½-year high earlier Wednesday of $1.0154 US. The loonie's been at or near parity with the U.S. currency for weeks, a state of affairs that causes headaches for Canadian exporters who get paid in U.S. dollars.