In Dark Side of the Loon, Craig Alexander points out that an undervalued dollar would support inefficient firms, reducing their incentive to invest in better technologies and productivity.Mark Blinch/Reuters
The Canadian dollar fell as Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party was set to win the most seats in Monday's national election, ending Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decade-long rule.
Canada's three major broadcasters -- CTV, CBC and Global News -- projected a Liberal win, while saying it was too early to predict whether the party would have enough seats for a majority government. The benchmark 10-year government bond gained 12 cents to $107.12 (Canadian), pushing the security's yield down one basis point to 1.46 per cent. The currency weakened versus 15 of 16 major peers in the Asian trading session.
Trudeau campaigned on a plan that included running $25 billion in deficits over three years to stimulate the economy with infrastructure spending, while increasing taxes on top earners and cutting them for the middle class.
"Investors are somewhat cautious about the change in government," said Bipan Rai, director of foreign-exchange strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's CIBC World Markets unit by phone from Toronto. "It might be due to some uncertainty about how the fiscal picture is going to look."
The loonie fell 0.2 percent to $1.3044 per U.S. dollar at 10:10 p.m. in Toronto - or 76.66 cents (U.S.). At the close of North American trading at 4 p.m. (ET), it was trading at 76.81.
The collapse in the price of crude oil, one of Canada's largest exports, tipped the country into recession in the first half of this year and has since pushed the loonie to its lowest in 11 years, while bond yields dropped to their lowest ever.
With contributions from The Globe and Mail