An open letter to James Flaherty, Minister of Finance for Canada:

[I have long urged everyone to take the time to let your government representative know how you feel, especially if you have a grievance, and even when (rarely I find)  you want to praise them. Here is my example]

Mr. Minister

Although I don't expect this communication to do the least amount of good, apart from generating a letter of 'brush off' intent, as a vacationing, handicapped senior, I am disgusted that the loonie has been allowed to drop to the level it has; i.e. $0.89-cents. This, along with bank charges, which you don't seem to care about either, is enough to make me a prisoner of winter, unable to leave the house with my walker.

For example, 100 USD dolllars taken from an A.T.M. in Florida costs $120.00--$111.00 with currency exchange; an additional $6.00 for 'currency conversion' and bank charges; and $3.00 A.T.M. fee. This utterly outrageous.

And before you lecture me on the benefits to the export industries, i.e. oil industry [$12 billion in profits for Q4, 2013], the gas industry [$4 billion]and General Motors (which is subsidized by the Canadian taxpayers), I will remind you that you are the 'people's representative too, and the trickle-down theory never seems to get down to my level.

As I have said above, I doubt whether this correspondence will do any good whatsoever, but be aware that I am not a happy camper.

Gerry A. Burnie.