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The Ascent of the Loonie and Decline of Manufacturing: A Global Attack on U.S. Dollar That Canada Can Do Little About; McGuinty Wrong to Pressure Harper; Main Solution to Cut Corporate Taxes; Loonie Will Decline
A BDO Dunwoody CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in Canadian Business Magazine

Faced with the rapid ascent of the Canadian dollar, the COMPAS panel of CEOs and business leaders was a range of questions about why it is happening, what should be done, what the loonie will be worth, and what it should be worth.
The panel believes that

• The rise of the loonie is largely beyond Canadian control;
  
• Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was misguided in seeking to pressure the Prime Minister to influence Bank of Canada interest rates;
  
• A decline of interest rates would nonetheless help moderate the rise of the loonie but the most effective action to help Canadian manufacturers would be a fall in corporate tax rates;
  
• The ideal exchange rate would involve a fall of the Canadian dollar to 91 cents U.S. but panelists forecast that the actual value will be U.S. $ 1.03 at the end of 2007 and U.S. $ 0.98 in November, 2008.

These are the key findings from the current web-survey of the panel of CEOs and business leaders undertaken for Canadian Business under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.