Page THE HERALD jane it UM the HERALD Outlook OUTLOOK is published each Saturday by the HALTON HILLS HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario 3Z6 8778822 Opening a US bank account may be a wise move Dianne Maley TORONTO You may not think of yourself as a speculator But if you have all your assets in Cana dollars you may be taking a big chance If the Canadian dollar falls against world currencies your standard of living will fall with it The S dollar is the standard against which other currencies are measured The two North American dollars tend to move in tandem against European currer cies and the yen But this could change soon says Michael Hart bond trader at Capital Markets in Toronto Mr Hart specializes in bonds denominated in foreign currencies In the early 1970s the Canadian and U S dollars were at par a buck was still a buck By the mid 1980s the Canadian dollar had slip ped to a low of 69 cents US before bouncing back to the cent rage At the low point one Cana dian dollar bought U S cents on the wholesale market Turned Corner THE BEAT GOES ON Like a lover and It The tumble dryer tumbled started throbbing The frostfree fridge rumbled The microwave sounded The no wax floor was The newscaster pounded glistening And suddenly she was sobbing The weather man told her J B Alton That It was a scorcher But she had the air BIG BOV Bl conditioning He walked to the And looked out through space She made the kids beds He knew that he had to And patted their heads Gel out of this place In the pictures displayed on the walls The words of the song She thought about school Ricocheted through his head How It could be cruel But his fingers were still And prayed they could roll Ills airguitar dead with the falls Killed by the stress She tidied the place The pressure the noise And put on her face The lady dropped in with And all those war toys her Avon The radio droned The liquid lunches Her husband phoned The typingpool thighs And the rock singer told her The shorts in the dark to Rave On The lies to the wives The morning man played her The pinstriped grenades Another heart render The deadlines the joys But she was tired of listening Of war in the city Still the sweet guitar With all the big boys strummed As the dishwasher hummed Memories of younger days And her nerve ends Struggled for life started bristling He thought of his children His mortgage his wife The Jobs were all done It hadnt been fun Awareness of duty But the words and the beat Just made him feel sadder kept her going No kamikaze dive She wasnt sure where From this corporate ladder But sue didnt care Sbe was better off now Tbe battle was lost knowing company won And be bit tbe bullet She lay on deck On tbe The son torched her neck by JB Acton 8772201 PUBLISHER K Robert EDITOR Brian MacLeod AD MANAGER Dan Taylor Second Class Mail Registered Number Lisa Rutledge STAFF WRITERS Ben SPORTS EDITOR Colin Gibson ACCOUNTING Jennie Inga Shier CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Joan ADVERTISING SALES Valois Craig Teeter Stacie Roberts KimHaryott PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Dave Hastings SupLMyles Gilson Stu Robertson Wilson CIRCULATION Marie SNAFU by Bruce Beattie around one S dollar was worth Canadian funds The Canadian dollar has since recovered to around cents U S But analysts predict it will tumble again Regardless of how the constitutional wrangle turns out Canada is troubled by debt and a deteriorating balance sheet DIVERSIFY There are many ways to diver sify your holdings You can open a bank account in S dollars If you are worried about exchange con you can open a bank account in the United States You can buy S stocks bonds or bills You can buy shares of mutual funds that in vest in American stocks Or you can buy global funds that invest all over the world But if most of your savings are in a registered savings plan you will want interest bearing investments that are eligi for inclusion in RRSPs That means securities issued by Cana dian companies sells all kinds of bonds It has everything from Peruvian government bonds S dollars to Kingdom of Sweden bonds denominated in British pounds I asked Mr Hart if any of his exotic products were eligible for RRSPs He rattled off a list Bank of Nova Scotia 58 per cent bonds denominated in West German marks The bonds are due in Government of Canada per cent bonds Japanese yen The bonds are due in 1993 Steal the Van Gogh you idiot not the stuff in the safe behind it Canada is given bad grade by think tank Kevin Bell Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Less than six months after Canada joined the Organization of American States a Washington think tank has given Ottawa failing marks for its role In a newsletter that assesses the OASs effectiveness the influential Council on Hemispheric Affairs notes that Canada has been timid and has refused to use its power to temper the United States tendency to run roughshod over the organization While the admission several months ago of Canada as a full fledged member nation was by optimistic Latin nations as a way to balance decades of U S dominance of the Washington has continued to look upon the organization as a rubber stamp for its policies the newsletter says Larry Birns a former professor who directs the council says Canadas imprint on the OAS has been superficial Canadas contribution has been cold cash and its good name he says As of yet we havent seen the Canada hand at work CRITICAL Bims is particularly cnticial of comments made by External Af fairs Minister Joe Clark im mediately after the United States invaded Panama last December Clark offered contradictory views of the invasion by first regretting that the United States used force and by warning that the invasion could set a dangerous precedent and then by stating that Ottawa understood why the S decided to invade notes that the tatter com ments also contradicted a speech made by Clark at the OAS tn November in which he praised the organizations principle of intervention in other member nations internal affairs Clarks implicit support for the Panama invasion stunned many Latin American who expected that Canadas policies which are usually more sympathetic to them than S policies would be ex pressed OAS sessions Canada joined the OAS after years as an observer of the body in a bid to enhance CanadianLatin American relations but says Canada may consistently side with the Americans out of fear of injur ing relations with the United States on other items on the Canada S agenda such as trade But to keep warm relations with other members of the Cana d an officials have to let their voices be heard even if they sometimes disagree with official S policies in Latin America Birns says If they dont theyll just be looked upon as the gringo con sortium On the plus side Canada has been a financial shot in the arm to the debt ridden organization With the full payment of more than million Canada joins Dominica as the only countnes of the member body that have paid their full dues The United States on the other hand is the biggest debtor It owes million to the COHA says the U S refusal to pay its dues is further proof of the Bush administrations attempt to downgrade the OAS and ignore any of the bodys opposition to US policies When these policies have been frustrated by the regional body either through Inaction or outright opposition as was the case with Panama then the White House is fully prepared to ignore the OAS as well as treat it with contempt the council says However after years of inaction the is now emerging with new found respect despite Canadian timidity and American contempt COHA says It won kudos for its arbitration role in the Nicaraguan election and was recently asked by Haiti for electoral assistance Senate committee has some raw courage Stewart MacLeod OTTAWA About a month ago I paid a justified tribute to the Senate committee on internal economy for its raw courage I think it was courage perhaps it was gall Anyway it was a tribute What that damn thetorpedoes committee did was actually pro pose with a straight face that senators be given an incentive bonus for attending to their business The committee even had a figure at its fingertips exactly a day tax free Senators would receive this for every single day they turned Up for a sitting or attended a committee hearing A little extra walking around money so to speak You see senators are not exactly role models when it comes to dance despite the fact the institu tion sits only a couple of days a week usually for a couple of hours at a time Since they qualify for their pay if they show up just once every two sessions thats like once every two years there may indeed be a lack of incentive to at tend Their pay incidentally is in basic salary along with a tax free allowance A fairly strong case can be made that this income should keep the wolf from the door Of course there is nothing to stop senators from earning other income Lord knows their present hours provide plenty of scope to dabble in law practices or if they prefer sell aluminum siding BIG SURPRISE Anyway when the internal economy committee under Senator Romeo came forth with this rather stunning mcentiveforsenators program I though it merited a congratulatory comment Its not every day that a committee would risk public ridicule this way 1 also felt it was important to mention because of my absolute conuction that the subject would never be raised again that the committees recommendation would gather dust on some backroom shelf Surely the red chamber itself would never em brace such a proposal not at a time when Canadas first ministers were meeting just a few blocks away to discuss Senate reform After all there are actually some first ministers who believe senators are already underworked and overpaid One could assume that honorable senators would do nothing to enhance this viewpoint I was wrong Brother was I wrong At the very moment that first ministers were crunching the reform proposals thats the new word for solving problems the upper chamber acted with breathtaking valor and senators voted themselves the daily in centive They must have been Impressed with Senator argument that as things stand there is almost a disincentive to go to the Senate