It’s time to book your Daytona Beach vacation packages. The Canadian Loonie reached parity with the U.S. dollar two weeks ago for the first time since 1976, so now is your chance to travel on the cheap. And while you’re there, you might want to invest in some real estate. Hell, buy up the whole country for all I care.

Do I sound bitter? Perhaps I should explain.

I hail from south of the border and pay my international tuition with the good ol’ American greenback. When I started studying at U of T three years ago, my quality education was a bargain. Now, it’s safe to assume that my two younger brothers will not be following me to the proverbial greener pastures of the North to pursue their own higher education.

And guess what, my Canadian friends—the new dollar sucks for you guys, too.

Canadian industries like lumber, which rely on the exportation of goods to U.S. customers, are losing money to the weak Yankee coin. I’m guessing that people who live in already-struggling northern lumber towns, which are built around their local mills, are not too excited about this whole parity thing. It’s no secret that when mills shut down, ghost towns multiply.

An estimated 250,000 manufacturing jobs in Ontario and Quebec have been cut over the past five years, a loss the Canadian Labour Congress attributes to the decline of the U.S. dollar. This may or may not seem like a terrible thing now, but losing base manufacturing sectors will be catastrophic in the long run.

Even though Canucks seem to love hating on their southern neighbours, the fact remains that my flag-toting brethren were once loyal tourists whose dollars were happily spent bolstering the Canadian economy on jaunts through Toronto, Montreal and beyond. Canadian tourism is already a flagging industry; the loss of potential bargainseeking American tourists is going to hurt.

Then there are the seafood processors of P.E.I. who are unable to raise their prices within the competitive fish industry in order to compensate for falling exchange rates. Not to mention the small Canadian businesses that will collapse from the competition of U.S. border-town bargains. And, of course, there are the television and movie producers who will start bringing their big bucks somewhere other than the once-cheap “Hollywood North.”

Finally, there are those potential U of T students, like my little brothers, who won’t have the option of choosing this fabled institution over the state schools they can actually afford. I wonder how the university will compensate for all those lost international tuition fees? Surely not by raising your tuition.

On the bright side, there’s never been a better time to hit up those outlet malls in western New York. Nautica, anyone?