[cbowal]

Out of curiosity - isn't an economy more diversified (and thus stabilized) by having both manufacturing (which benefits from a low $CAD) and oil (which benefits a high $CAD)?

[afarrell]

yep, but without a large pool of internal demand to buffer things, these two work against each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

[badloginagain]

Dutch disease is exactly what NDP leader Thomas Mulcair called it, and for some reason the Conservatives are trying to spin it as an attack against Mulcair. Personally I find the political spectrum in Canada just baffling.