In what could be described as an indictment of the last decade’s worth of Canadian economic policy, the Canadian dollar sits at the precipice of 22 year lows as traders wait for Sunday futures to open. If last week’s back and forth volatility was any indication, we could be in for another wild week in markets affected by the tariff ON/OFF stream of headlines that seem to hit the newswires every few hours.
The Canadian loonie closed at one of its worst prices in decades on Friday. In much the same way as the CEO of a company is ultimately judged by the price of their stock, Canadian leadership is ultimately judged by the price of its currency. It would be too easy to point at one or two major global macro-economic events as the reason for the Canadian dollar sitting where it is, but ultimately this did not happen in a day, and has been a decade in the making. The current tariff crisis is just the latest challenge for Canadians.
Canada needs some change, the currency is telling us so.
Having said that, change does appear to be on the way in 2025, and hopefully for the better. Justin Trudeau has resigned, net-zero banking alliances are collapsing, the Government of Canada has deferred the capital gains tax increase, and tariffs (while currently ON) could very well be OFF at any moment. Some difficult decisions will need to be made, but stay strong Canada, we’ll get through this.