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[20 The South Marysburgh Mirror THE LAST WORD | Those of you who have been watching the climb of the Canadian dollar over these past few months (I suspect that’s everyone) will probably have been doing so with quiet anticipation boiling up within your breast (s). That spring vacation is now begin- ning to look possible. Within the past two years the Canadian loonie has gained THIRTY TWO PER- CENT on the US Buck....Yes | did say 32%. What has that meant for the average Canadian family in terms of purchasing power? Let's look at the bigger items like buying a home. If you have ever watched television home-purchase programs on a channel like HGTV you might have been struck on the size and number of extras that a home buyer in the US of A gets for their $200,000. | am not talking about ‘inner city’ living in places like Washington or NY or LA, but your average Belleville/Picton sized small/medium town in which new developments are shown. The homes come with more land; none of this barely being able to stand between two houses and have your left shoulder on the neighbours wall and your right on your home! The homes also come with additional features like a living space above the double gar- age (bonus room) and many others. More for less | am thinking. What about our next purchase...a vehicle? A quick pounding of a few keys on the computer - You know-you're right.’ The dollar does [00k stromer Wy toa ay! brought this information on one of the big three au- to manufacturers...1 won’t say which one if you don’t mind. Eamily saloon price range in US of A: $21580 - $26125/ same in Canada $26824 - $32874 giv- ing a median price difference of 18% “NATION PUZZLE 17 pastorS-WED-ENgaged SOLUTION 18 E-A-TABLES a H el El 21 S(PORTS)WEAR LOINLUIN vial. Mal ialiinjd) 23 TIRE oO (N] v| 24 PUT-RID [ays] [i Meelvialm[s|ifalofals} 45 Isai ijelv[t|v/SRiN(S/alaimis) Boedgs T-RAINING DOWN CA(TNI(anag, Tin))P H(BERN)ATED BOUGHT (anag. hog but) DEBE EOPEREG Vi a ci EN SLAM 1 2 3 4 CHARGS)M-A 5 6 M(OUNT (anag. unto)) AIN ADV(ERT(anag.rte)ISEMENT SNAIL BIT IN Garden Eamily X-over vehicle price of vehicle in US of A: $27620 / same in Canada $32664 giving a price difference of 16% Pick up Truck price of vehicle in US of A: $36830 / same in Canada $43969 giving a price difference of 16% Now | do not claim to be an expert on new vehicle pricing, however, give or take a point or two here and there for slight model differences (and | did try to pick the exact same vehicle) the overall price difference between one vehicle purchased in Can- ada against the SAME vehicle purchased in USA is in the 16 percent range. HOWEVER, we have not yet considered taxes. You can take a look at this yourself if you care to Google: http://www. bankrate.com/brm/itax/edit/state/ profiles/state_tax_Fla.asp There you can find the taxes for any US State and it makes interesting ACROSS 15 DOWN-P-OUR 7 MAN-I-TOBA (anag, boat) 16 R(INGS(anag, sing) IDE 9 H(ALL)OW 19 THRO(w delJAT 10 ONCE 20 nastiER-RANTing 11 G(OVER-NM)ENT 22, RARE(anag, rear) 12 studieS-PINS-TERmites 13 SUNDAE (homo. Sunday) 15 DETERMI(anag. Merited) reading. Take Florida which is the example that will show when you click on the foregoing link. NO personal income tax. 6% state sales tax and 0.5% Continued on pagel9 to