Canadian dollar has risen to above par with the US one. So why are we still

[applegrove]

paying 20% more for books and good and stuff? Who do I call in the USA to make it stop. LOL! ....... no seriously?

[Chan790]

1. It's considered an import item...

and imports of intellectual property and creative works are one of the few areas of commerce where tariffs are still allowed broadly.

If it makes you feel better, if there was anything ever published out of Toronto by a publisher without a US division we'd pay more for it. (But virtually all Toronto-based publishers have a US division and claim for tax reasons that the works are US division properties...so you get to pay the tariff there as well.)

(This is the same reason that Japanese manga that sell in Tokyo for under $2-equivalent are like $15 US-side. They don't print them there and ship them; they reprint them here, but they have to pay the tariff anyways.)

[Bucky]

2. It's called supply and demand. It's what you get for wanting to read too badly.

Thing with them book writers is, you gotta let 'em know who's boss. If you go on and on about how important literacy is, they all get a bunch of swoll heads and demand too much for their mentallectual property.

[Chan790]

4. F*cking writers.

Good for nothing, I tell you. (Except me, I'm super-awesome. Once a month, they send my publicity headshot to Chuck Norris and The Rock as an exemplar of what bad-ass is.)

[hunter]

3. The dollar is God's currency.

It will always be worth more.
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:sarcasm:

[auntAgonist]

5. I'm not thrilled :( I'm going to Ontario next weekend. Gas price

is $1.31 per litre and, the Dollar will cost me more.


:(

aA

[P. Galore]

6. To protect Canadian writers and publishers. Really.

I'm a United Statesian who has spent years in Canada in the past and is in Toronto right now.

ALSO, once you've proven you'll buy at the higher price, why lower prices? I go to Book City on Bloor and see a lot of things I would like to buy, then I remember, "oh, I'll wait until I get back to DC."

[applegrove]

7. I worked at a book store in the Montreal airport. I can't tell you how many times

an American would ask if they could pay the listed American price since that is where they were from and where they were going. LOL!

[P. Galore]

9. The worst you could say is 'No'. That's a riot. nt

[chollybocker]

8. Also, because of volume purchasing.

Buying 100,000 books costs less /per unit/ than buying 10,000 books, i.e., the US population is 10x that of Canada.

(The Cdn dollar is actually over par right now; I see this reflected not only in the financial pages, but on eBay listings.)