Will Iceland decide to go loonie?

“Nobody seems to hate Canada,” Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once said.             The latest generation of Canadian $100 bills made of polymer went into circulation last fall.                            These days, Iceland, especially, doesn’t hate Canada. It might even adopt the Canadian loonie as its currency, in fact. Even though that’s only been proposed, it’s being discussed more and more openly in Iceland’s financial community and press.
Trudeau’s comment was made during the Vietnam War, when anti-Americanism was at its peak, but the pro-Canada (or pro-Canadian dollar) movement in the homeland of the alternative singer Bjork has its roots in a different kind of turmoil: economic. Namely, the collapse of Iceland’s banks and currency and the EU’s Greek problems.
The idea of adopting the loonie as Iceland’s currency to replace Iceland’s battered, propped-up krona was first suggested late last year by politicians and economists in Iceland’s opposition Progressive Party. It was given scant credibility by the Icelandic government, which is still officially applying for EU membership.
But the idea has gained momentum, the best evidence coming last weekend when Canada’s ambassador to Reykjavik, Alan Bones, was set to deliver a speech to the Progressive Party, saying that Canada would have no problem with the loonie migrating to Canada. (Iceland has strict currency controls supporting the krona.)
“If you want to adopt the loonie as your currency, we won’t stand in your way,” was the gist of what Bones was going to say, according to a report on Iceland’s RUV state broadcaster picked up by several Canadian news outlets. After all, Ecuador adopted the U.S. dollar, right? Just send over a few boatloads of the bird-bedecked coins (the Canadian dollar itself is no longer a bill), and, voilà, you’ve got your stable currency.                                                           Click to Play                                                    Crisis-era history: Iceland's collapse A meteoric and rapid rise gave way to an economic miracle in Iceland, one that all of its citizens hoped to benefit from, Andy Jordan examines how that miracle came to an abrupt end.                             But when word of Bones’s impending speech leaked out in the Canadian press last weekend, alarm bells rang in Canada’s Foreign Ministry, which quickly decided that this was — make no Bones about it — not a good idea. “We don’t comment on other countries’ currency,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson told CBC radio last weekend, adding that it was also a political event. There’s also the problem that Iceland’s current government isn’t backing the loonie idea. Yet.
If Iceland went ahead and adopted our currency, Bones would have said in the speech, it wouldn’t have any say in Canadian monetary policy. Interest rates would still be set by the Bank of Canada. But Bones, rattled, canceled. Which is too bad. He could have substituted a speech and spoken about something bland, like Canadian-Icelandic friendship. Or maybe the strong performance of the Toronto Maple Leafs this season.
Adopting the loonie idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds, more and more have been pointing out.
First, Canada has a stable, if somewhat lukewarm, economy. It also has, like Iceland, a resource-based economy. Just not as many volcanoes. The loonie is also a liquid currency that roughly tracks world commodity prices, which matches up nicely with Iceland’s.

Icelanders may be looking for a strong, economic father figure and a strong central bank, and the Bank of Canada has that — a widely respected governor, Mark Carney. Carney, after all, was recently named to head up the Financial Stability Board. If there’s one thing Iceland needs, it’s financial stability. And the loonie is stable; it’s been roughly at par value with the greenback for some time now.
Plus, as more than one Icelandic pol has pointed out, Canada is an arctic country that thinks about the arctic a lot more than, say, the U.S., which thinks more about places like Hawaii this time of year, plus Cuba and Mexico. Canada thinks a lot more about that polar region these days partly because former U.S. President George W. Bush allowed that the U.S. doesn’t recognize Canadian sovereignty in the arctic. Not the best way to make friends in Ottawa.
Icelanders seem to like the idea of going loonie. A recent Gallup poll found that seven out of 10 of them said they would happily dump their volatile and fragile krona for another currency. Their favored alternative? The Canadian dollar — which easily outpolled the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Norwegian krone.
It’s also been pointed out that if Iceland’s current government decides to change course and drop its application for EU membership, there’s nothing to stop it from acting unilaterally and adopting the Canadian dollar. (And, after all, those new see-through Canadian $100 bills are as cool as Reykjavik in December.)
This isn’t the first time another country has coveted Canada’s currency.
In 1982, the Turks and Caicos (we’ll pause here while you grab an atlas or do an Internet map search) also proposed adopting the Canadian dollar. The small British colonies near Cuba were rebuffed by Canada then, letting a sunny opportunity slip through its gloved fingers.
Which leads to another reason Canada could be more and more willing to consider the idea, with its now having reached the ambassadorial level.
At the very least, said one letter to the editor in a Toronto newspaper this week, it would add a holiday destination without any exchange issues.
Canadians are nothing if not practical.                             The downside: Iceland has no palm trees.                   

That there was the biggest Lost opportunity never regained ! 

I don't think the Icelanders are that looney.

who wrote dat crap?

the icelandic people kick out the banks, braved all that europe could throw at them, arrest and try and jail bankers when ameica rewards them for their crimes..

the Icelandic people strong enuff to stand up against the world...only to come now and accept canadian tutelage by using 'our' dollar as their currency.

who holding the gun to their heads........? ::rofl:: ::rofl:: ::rofl::


it wudden be harper!  he wud be busy trying to curb or shut down the ROBO Call election scam and save himself a jail term! :shocked: :shocked: :shocked: