Go Canada Go! The folly of attaching a rising dollar to national pride

The Economist recently described Canada's jubilation after achieving parity with the U.S. dollar as schadenfreude.

Schaden-shmigaloid is a German word that more or less translates into taking 'pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune.'

There is indeed a certain element of truth to this. While Canada is benefiting from high commodity demands from China, many other factors come into play when it comes to any currency - among them an investors perception about how they view a currency. With the American economy facing certain recessionary threats, Canada is taking full advantage to explode in nationalist fury.

Though not everyone is impressed. As we all know, a high currency has all sorts of implications both negative and positive. But that's not the point here.

As I have argued in the past, it doesn't just apply to symbols of currency. Canadian nationalists make it a habit of measuring our strengths and successes against the backdrop of American weaknesses or failures. We are in a constant glaze of navel-gazing up here. In our continuous search to define the Canadian identity we haven't satisfied ourselves.

Where has it gotten us as I observe the meteoric rise of the loonie? It can be summarized thusly: We are not American or the more diplomatic "at least we are not American."

Remember I mentioned perception? Well, this is how I perceive things.