Happy Canada Day, everyone.

Seeing as I just got back from Niagara Falls, Ontario, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to wish our neighbours with the 'u' a Happy Canada Day.

141 years young today. More below the fold...

Speaking of Niagara Falls, yesterday was the anniversary of Jean-François  (a.k.a. "The Great Blondin") Gravelet's tightrope walk across the Falls in 1859. A few of his famed stunts included doing headstands on the rope, carrying his manager across on piggy-back, doing it blindfold, and doing it on stilts.

During his third crossing in 1860, he stopped midway to cook and eat an omelet. One mad bugger indeed.

Even though you're still just a bridge walk (or a tightrope walk, if you like) from the US, it's still a different country. The only other time I have had a similar feeling to being so near to (yet so far from) home was when I was in Calais, France. Looking out over the 26 miles to Dover and thinking "I could get something covered in baked beans over there"...

I did notice one thing: a lot more Ontario license plates than I expected were making the trip. Then my wife reminded me that a greenback would get you approximately CDN$1.40 just five years ago. Now, 'thanks' to the weak dollar, it's almost parity. They'll take US dollars everywhere from the casinos to the ice-cream sellers on Clifton Hill, and last week both were equally valid. Pay with Abraham Lincoln, get some Loonies and a few quarters with the Toronto 2010 Winter Olympics on them.

Which isn't bad, until you remember that the US dollar has always been roughly 25% stronger.

The minimum wage in Ontario is $8.75; which worked out to be around US$6.25 back in 2003's rate of exchange, but it's worth the same in US now. And that's just for flipping burgers. No wonder we saw so many cars. Why pay $8 for a footlong at Subway on one side of the Niagara River when it's $5 on the other side? There have already been reports of people from Canada shopping for clothes just South Of The Border.

Dianne Giliforte, tourism director for Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls, said business at the mall this weekend exceeded all expectations. It was even up over the same weekend last year. "In a word, extraordinary," said Giliforte.

Retailers report that, in the past couple of months, 60 to 70 per cent of their business has been from Canadian shoppers, she said.

Car commercials in Canada are now selling cars close to the US price and drive home (sorry for the pun) the "currency readjustment". It's an interesting thought: Canadians are now using the United States in the same way that Western European tourists use countries in the former Communist Eastern Europe and Hong Kong. As a place to stock up on their clothes. In a place where the weather is slightly better and the food is so much cheaper.

There's a term for what the Canadians are able to do, thanks to the financial plans of the Republicans. It's called Pro-Poor Tourism...

tourism that results in increased net benefits for poor people

Remember when so many people said they were going to move to Canada in 2004? Doesn't seem like it was such a bad idea after all.