After 31 years of playing second fiddle, the Canadian loonie, so-called because of the bird on the dollar coin, overtook the U.S. greenback this week. A nation that has long been the butt of jokes from its neighbor to the south puffed out its chest and grinned.
At the start of the year, one U.S. dollar bought 1.166 Canadian dollars. Late Friday in New York, it bought just 1.0008 — a slide of 14%. On Thursday, the two currencies hit parity for the first time since 1976. In January of 2002, the U.S. currency touched its recent high against the loonie, with one dollar buying 1.6143 Canadian dollars.
Mexico will be building a wall along its northern border in a few years if the dollar continues its slide.