Not too many years ago the Canadian dollar was roughly at par with the U.S. dollar. I'm certain its decline has multiple causes but surely a major one is the drop in oil prices. Canada exports oil, lumber, and agricultural products (wheat, meat, berry jam, etc.). Oil prices have fallen, and building in the States has been slow, meaning lumber sales are down.
Canada seems to draw more foreign tourists than the U.S. Honestly, I'm not certain whether the absolute numbers are larger but the proportion seems greater. It is very common to overhear conversations in a wide variety of foreign languages in a Canadian national park, less so in U.S. parks.
Offhand, I'd presume many Americans travel in Canada but I'm not certain it's true. We've seen 2-3 California license plates, others like our WY ones are almost non-existent. We've seen a few from Quebec, a couple frm Ontario, and maybe 1-2 from BC and Sask. Mostly its Alberta plates, and that makes sense, in the same way CA plates are common at Yosemite.
There aren't many Americans here ... this region is spectacular, our countrymen are missing out. We've been coming here every few years for four decades, it's maybe our 6th visit. In the old days no passport was required and I believe more Americans came then. Lots of Americans don't have passports.
Our country is so big and varied Americans can do a lot of travel without a passport. We did exactly that in the '70s and '80s before we got into going overseas. Since then we've never been without.
Figuring the speed limit is easy too. Take the speed limit in kph and mentally multiply by 0.6. Thus 110 becomes 66, 100 becomes 60, 90 becomes 54, etc. One that still throws me is 30 which you do see, and it converts to 18 which I've treated as 20 ... doggone slow either way. Figuring mileage when the pumps read out in litres and Canadian dollars is complicated, but doable.
