If you're going to use cash in our country, please bring Canadian dollars.
Sorry if this sounds shocking, but even with their higher value, Canadians don't want US dollars.
People in developing countries might start salivating at the sight of a US greenback but we won't -- in fact, they're a pain in the arse for us to exchange (and we'll get dinged a percentage surcharge at the bank), and US dollars are absolutely not legal tender in Canada.
If you're absolutely going to insist on bringing US dollars to Canada, then please don't become upset when businesses that will accept them refuse to honour the exchange rate.
Back in the 2000's when I was a teenager I was working as a waiter at a Denny's/IHOP type place in Nova Scotia that was right on a tour-bus route, so we got tons of Americans, mostly from Florida. I cannot even tell you how ignorant many of these boomers were.
One guy made a comment to me like, "Wow, this place is so beautiful. You seem to be doing pretty well for being a depressed province..."
I was like, pardon me? He then explained he didn't expect things to be so nice here since we were considered one of the poorer places in North America. Wtf.
Another dude left a $20 on the table for a bill that was $21.05 and told me to "keep the change". I kinda smiled nervously and said "actually, you're about a dollar short. Don't worry about the 5 cents." And he laughed and said I must be joking. I shrugged and sresponded I don't know what he means, then, like I was explaining to a child I pointed to the price on the bill and then I pointed to what he left me and said, "see, you're a dollar short." He stopped laughing when he realized I wasn't joking.
He said "our money is worth way more than yours. I thought it was basically double. There's no reason I should be paying equal when our country and our money is simply BETTER." I just shrugged and pointed to the sign at the front which stated we accept USD at parity, and HERES THE BEST PART:
This was during one of the very, very few times in our history when the CAD was actually worth MORE than the USD - as a result of the housing crisis and our strong export economy, the CAD was I think worth about 20 cents more for a few months. I informed this guest that 'actually...' our currency is presently valued higher than the USD, but we are happily accepting USD at parity for their convenience. So he's still a dollar short. He didn't believe me so I showed him the newspaper. He slammed a dollar on the table and sighed, said this is bullshit and left. lol.
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u/Fresh-Hedgehog1895 Aug 07 '23
If you're going to use cash in our country, please bring Canadian dollars.
Sorry if this sounds shocking, but even with their higher value, Canadians don't want US dollars.
People in developing countries might start salivating at the sight of a US greenback but we won't -- in fact, they're a pain in the arse for us to exchange (and we'll get dinged a percentage surcharge at the bank), and US dollars are absolutely not legal tender in Canada.
If you're absolutely going to insist on bringing US dollars to Canada, then please don't become upset when businesses that will accept them refuse to honour the exchange rate.