Canadian sticker shock
This is our first trip to Canada to amount to anything. We arrived in Calgary Tuesday afternoon. First shock was the gas pump. 82l of diesel for $152.00. I understand the exchange rate and all but I s...
Forum Discussion
DrewE wrote:
You may have picked the two commodities that are the most obviously/significantly more expensive in Canada, as it turns out. That doesn't help when you mainly need to buy beer and gas, I realize; but most food staples and campgrounds and clothing and other stuff seems to me to be close enough to the same price that one doesn't need to worry about the difference when traveling.
Actually, we shop cross border for most of the stuff you've mentioned, because even with our tanking loonie, the prices are still lower in the land of the greenback after we convert our money. Electronics are an exception, although I bought the laptop I'm on right now in Michigan on sale at Best Buy. So, there you go.
Our government promotes tourism in Canada to our American cousins using their strong dollar as the best reason to come up here. They try to sell it as more bang for your US bucks. Simple math refutes that, though. If the forex rate difference is 30% but our price on something identical that you can buy at home is 50% higher, you're losing money up here. That's the reality of visiting a socialist country. It's like visiting a casino. Sometimes you win, but the odds are stacked in favor of the house.
