O Canada!

If you do that every time then won't you run out of change?

 

"The Other Province" now that's a first
Well if you must know us others commonly call the dollar piastre the cent sous or cenne and the quarter trente-sous .

Meh I like mine it's fine as it is.

 

No offense Harbs but I think you're "insane" for worrying so much about it.

I've never seen a two cent coin btw ... if someone tried to give you one when you were here they were having you on.

 

Canada finally passed a law getting rid of the penny, and the last one was made a week or so ago. They'll still be accepted, but eventually they'll run out. The idea is that the price at the till (on your total purchase, after taxes) will be rounded off to the nearest nickel. This applies only to cash transactions - credit and debit will still be to the penny. It's about time pennies were phased out - they're a PITA, and have no meaningful value whatsoever. Frankly, I'd be happy if we got rid of anything under a quarter.

 

This got me thinking:

Perhaps to a Canadian or American it's not, but to me, a Dutchman, it is. If you travel 100 km from where I live, you're in Brussels, in the middle of Belgium.

 

Yeah when I was working in the tourism industry I've noticed that the notion of what's far away is quite different to Europeans compared to North Americans. See, 100 km from where I live is my grandma's house. That's not a particularly long distance. That's what, maybe an hour drive ? Another example; it takes slightly longer by plane to travel from Montréal to Vancouver than from Montréal to Paris.

 

100km is a very long way to me. I'd guess that over 25% of New Zealanders live within 100km of the centre of Auckland. Several of the places I would go on holiday are within 100km of where I live.

Canada is ridiculously big.

 

Of course, but I was expecting just about every Canadian to include the word "eh" in every other sentence, and most of them didn't, which surprised me. I'm sure there are Canadians that say it a lot, and most stereotypes are grounded in some truth, I just thought I'd hear it more. On a somewhat ancillary note, I do not recall hearing the word "about" or "out" while there. Although if they were pronounced with the "oo" sound, I think I would have remembered.

So that means unless about 21 million people live within 100 km of Toronto, it isn't 60% of the population.

OK, at least I'm not going nuts. And while I don't remember exactly what year I was last in Canada, I'm pretty sure it was before 1996.

Hmmm.... That doesn't even come to 9 million people - not even half of what you'd need to get to 60% of the population.

Yes - as I said, I was in Toronto.

All I know is I got less both times I changed my money in. I'm sure that the money exchangers take a percentage of it. Anyway though, it seems like at the moment the conversion rate of the Canadian versus USD is nearly identical. On the way into Canada, I got a rate of $100 US for $97 Canadian. On the way out, I got $100 Canadian for $96 US. Which would suggest that the USD is worth slightly more than the Canadian, assuming there wasn't a large change in the exchange rate in less than a week.

The only argument I can put forth in favor of having $1 bills as opposed to coins is it costs less to produce a $1 bill compared to a $1 coin. It's for that reason that I wouldn't mind the US getting rid of its penny just like Canada - it costs more than a penny to make a penny.

I keep my change in a jar, roll it about twice a year, and come out with between $50 and $100, depending on what the concentration of 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, and 25 cent pieces are in there.

When I commented on it, the person at the exchange counter actually called it a "toonie" - or "twonie" - hell if I know the correct spelling.

To me, 100 km is quite small. Basically, any place that requires you to drive on a highway for an hour or more is more than 100 km away. I drive about 120 km a day just going to work and back. And Canada is a lot bigger than the US, so I can only imagine most Canadians feel that way too.

 

I hate poutine.
I think we should have coins up to $10 denominations.
I don't say 'eh' much but probably more than I realize.
Canada is pretty cool but we still struggle living so close to the biggest economy in the world. It makes us insecure, passive aggressive, and generally neurotic.

 

I'd love to go to Canada. I stopped off there for a plane to refuel when I was on my way to Mexico (England to Canada to Mexico, go figure) but I was only there for like an hour. I just worry that it's a bit ****ing cold. We English types go on holiday to get AWAY from the cold!

 

It's only cold in the winter Barmy - well at least here. In the summer it can get pretty damn hot. The room I keep my computer in turns into an oven often during the summer months. Places like Vancouver stay warm a lot longer even. Their spring starts in about February.

That would be the Newfies Adeleth.

 

Yeah it definitely doesn't seem that far from me. My university was about 90 km from my parents house and I used to go home a lot. My siblings go to a university 55 km away and they live at home and just drive it every day.

Gets even 'worse' in Northern Ontario, I have friends from Sault Ste. Marie who consider Sudbury close, and that's over 300 km away!

 

Interesting about perspectives ... I once drove 500 miles / 800 km in one night. That seemed kind of far.

 

The problem with people who live in the Toronto area (which probably applies to this guy) is that they tend to forget that the rest of Canada exisits, and tend to overstate Toronto's importance. According to Toronto's own website (which is more fact-based), only 25% of Canada's population lives within 160 km of Toronto.

http://www.toronto.ca/invest-in-toronto/tor_overview.htm

Edit: and yeah, 100km is not a long distance here. We own a cottage that is 150km away, and it's not that big a deal making a weekend round trip.

 

Now 25% seems much more in line with what I'd expect. Now you're talking about 9 million in the general Toronto area, which is almost exactly the number you'd get from adding up Reepnorp's totals.

Also agree with distance. You can drive 150 km to your cottage in about 2 hours, assuming most of that distance is on a highway. How is that far if you can get there in 2 hours?

One other comment, although this may only apply to Toronto as opposed to all of Canada. I think the only places where you'd find a higher concentration of Indian and Chinese people would be in India and China.

 

I've once heard Vancouver being referred to as "Hong-Couver" , from what I can remember from my trip there in 2004 there's a lot of ethnic chinese living in the city.