Posted on 04/01/2002 1:18:38 PM PST by RippleFire
Internet Spoof, Soon Denied, Hits Canadian Dollar
Mon Apr 1,10:53 AM ET
TORONTO (Reuters) - An April Fool's Day internet report that Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin would quit his job to breed Charolais cows and "handsome fawn runner ducks" sent the Canadian dollar lower on Monday, as the market grabbed at the straw of anything that might resemble news.
A laughing official at Martin's office declined, as always, to comment on market rumors. But asked if there was any indication that the story might be true, the official said firmly, "No."
The report included hyperlinks to sites with pictures of white Charolais cows and large brown-and-white ducks. It said Martin was getting ready to show his livestock at a country fair in Havelock, a town in Quebec with 811 people.
On a supposedly serious note it said the Bank of Canada was getting ready to intervene to defend the dollar, which slipped on the report to a one-month low of C$1.6024 to the U.S. dollar, or 62.41 U.S. cents, down sharply from C$1.5942 to the U.S. dollar, or 62.73 U.S. cents, at the previous close.
"While no one has any reason to believe the rumor, the story has a lot of credibility given Martin's continued problems in claiming any high ground -- versus (Prime Minister Jean) Chretien -- within the Liberal Party," said David Ebata, managing analyst at Thomson IFR in Boston.
The currency later recovered to around C$1.60 to the U.S. dollar.
The guy was a superficial loser, be thankful he is gone.
With Stephen Harper in charge you guys just might accomplish something other than embarassing yourselves.
The only person in the Alliance who I can imagine might have been a worse leader was Jason Kennedy, who was my MP when I lived in Calgary, he is a weird guy who goes around telling people he is a virgin
since Harper was elected no congressmen have bolted to the democrats
explain it to me, how is the Alliance worse off with Harper?
Just curious as to why you're so down on Stockwell Day?
Admittedly, I know nothing about Harper, but I do know that Day is as close to a Reagan-Conservative as I've ever known to be in Canadian politics.
Stockwell Day is unelectable, he has no credibility outside a very small circle of supporters, his leadership was a disaster. The Canadian Alliance is lucky to be alive.
Stephen Harper, is an economist, reasonably bright and he has credibility outside the Christian right, I don't think the liberals mock him like a circus sideshow.
Yeah, they treated Mr. Reagan like that too.
But the voting public trumped the media.
The Canadian Alliance picked up two seats in Ontario, that is 2 seats of 101, and if that isn't pathetic enough, they lost what could be consitered their safest electoral seat in the country, in the heart of Calgary to Joe Clark, who was prime minister ever so breifly, (like less than a year)who has the dubious honor of being an even bigger loser than Stockwell Day
Canadian Conservatives seem to have a iron clad commitment to failure. They pick the biggest losers you could imagine to carry their banner, but most of the time they are to busy beating each other with tire irons to actually rally behind their leaders.
Most Canadian conservatives just hold their noses and support the Liberal they find the least revolting, if you want a Canadian political to watch, have a look at John Manley, he is the Canadian secretary of state. From what I hear he is a pretty good guy.
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