I don't mind getting rid of the penny, but as usual the lightweights in the Harper government aren't able to give a good economic reason for its abandonment. For starters, the argument that it costs more than a penny to produce is absurd. Check your pockets and you'll probably find pennies from 20 years ago. So it's likely that those pennies were used over and over again-pennies are not meant to be disposable. So the cost per use is actually fractions of a fraction of a penny. But the Harperites trot out this as an excuse because they know that the mouth-breahters who are their core constituency will accept this facile explanation.
Secondly, I have owned and operated retail businesses, and trust me, if the price on something ended in less than a nickel, we would round UP. So when everyone else follows suit-which they will-there will be a small inflationary hit. Consider the cost of gas per litre. If we are given the privilege of paying only $1.27 for it, once the penny is gone, we will likely be paying A BUCK THIRTY on each and every litre we pump into our tanks. The Harperites haven't highlighted this little factoid-nor will they-because they are in the pockets of big oil and their buddies out west. So rejoice if you want about the disappearance of the penny. But don't crab when the price per litre of gas goes up in increments of $.05.
