Feeling Currency Pinch

While the headline “Two Sides to Canada’s Falling Currency” [Aug. 13] was an eye-catcher, I felt it did not really cover one major, personal, negative impact of those “two sides.” It is one which could provide a human interest follow-up story.

Several hundred thousand Canadians live permanently in the U.S.

The majority are retired either here or in Florida and live on investments or pensions drawn from Canada. To them, the impact of the falling dollar represents a disastrous income fallout.

If, as Greg McKnight commented at the end of your article, “We’re assuming it’s going to be down for two or three years,” these people are going to face some really tough, human decisions.

My contacts in Ottawa confirm a real lack of interest on the part of the government in doing anything significant to restore even a modicum of stability to the Canadian dollar.

If you can imagine the reaction of Americans if they suddenly found the U.S. dollar was only worth 50 cents in the rest of the world, you may get some sense of what a Canadian living in the U.S. on a fixed income is facing.

JAMES J. BROWN

La Crescenta