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I know what you mean about "a new found interest in politics", I've never voted either!!!!! but the 1st election I'm not living in the UK, it seems to matter sooooo much more :o

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So long as it's not Labour: they have a majority right now and have been using it to spend like a teenager who just found their parents' credit cards, so a Labour win is hardly going to improve matters.

Even the Tories don't seem serious about making the big cuts required to bring government borrowing back under control.

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Unfortunately, its not looking like any party is going to get a majority and therefore a victory ...................the majority of the polls are edging towards a hung parliament !! and this may effect the exchange rate even further. After last nights performance by David Cameron, it did nothing to widen the gap between the Conservatives and Labour, if anything it may have shortened it !!

I think it really is a slight on the Conservatives that after one of the worst recessions ever, while this labour govt has been at the helm, The Conservatives can still only be 6 points ahead of Labour in the major opinion polls !! it seems people have had enough of Labour , but just do not trust the Conservatives !!

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Personally I think it's more that the current Conservative leaders couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. As you say, any competent opposition should have been able to slaughter Labour in this election, whereas whenever Cameron opens his mouth voters abandon his party in droves.

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which of the 3 candidates is best capable of handling a similarly devastating economic crisis as we have just had?

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None. Which is precisely why the election is distinctly underwhelming.

Britain needs a Thatcher or better right now, and the best that's on offer is a wet Tony Blair clone. Government spending has to be slashed by hundreds of billions of pounds but both Conservatives and Labour are talking about how they can cut a billion here and a billion there as though it will make some difference.

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Thatcher didn't slash public spending.

I actually think there is a consensus among the three parties that spending cuts are necessary, although we can debate whether they will be enough all day. However small the cuts are though, in the context of this thread, they will be positive for gbp/cad. I reckon back up to 1.70 and over by sept/oct.

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No, but if you are going to slash government spending then you need someone with the determination to do what's right and the balls to continue despite being widely hated. None of the 'big 3' are such people.

I could see that happening briefly if the Conservatives do win, but so long as the British government is borrowing more than 10% of the country's entire income every year the pound is only going one way in the long term.

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I think I disagree - there are several bullish signs for GBP; the economic worst is over or nearly over for them, there is a history of paying back debt in this situation, the city isn't going anywhere, etc. Canada's miracle economy with it's well run banks is over stated - there is more dependence on the US than it likes to admit and a strong cad$ is going to hurt exporters here badly. There is also a matter of a rather large real estate bubble - it seems to be official bank of canada policy to keep this inflated.

Saying that, in the long long term, you may well be right, but all fiat currencies are only going one way - beggar thy neighbour being the name of the game.

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Alan 2005's take is what I feel as well. The miracle where Canada has virtually been untouched financially by the recent crisis is far too good to be true, when you consider that some of the world's worst corporate collapses were Canadian owned and operated eg. Nortel, and wasnt Bre-X a Canadian dominated 'miracle' too?. There are 'bubbles' all over the place loosing loft, but hanging on very silently in the hope that consumers will kick start the economy with a spending spree. BUT, with the loonie at it's current value, there's more spending being done across the border by Canadians than there is locally. Canadians can no longer afford to spend in Canada!!!!!

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Gordon Brown has borrowed the best part of 200,000,000,000 pounds in order to prop up the economy in the last year; how long do you think any supposed 'recovery' will last without continued massive borrowing which can only push sterling further downwards?

I do tend to agree that Canada must have some skeletons in the closet, but Britain has the skeletons right out in the open. Aside from a massive borrow-and-spend binge, the British housing bubble, for example, has been substantially worse relative to incomes than the Canadian one.

And if a real recovery does come, commodity markets are going to boom with increased demand from China and elsewhere, bringing a ton of money into the Canadian economy.

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Oh I agree with that. I just think they've been *mostly* priced in. Obviously this is just my view - and there are all sorts of things that could happen; what happens if this volcano goes on for months for instance?

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In that case the Liberals are the only ones with a decent plan... they're going to scrap the Trident replacement, which is set to cost $100 billion.

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Can't you come up with something more current? The Nortel and Bre-X fiascos were about 10 and 13 years ago respectively. As far as Canadians spending more across the border than they do locally, what is your proof for this wildly inaccurate statement. There is no doubt that with the loonie at its present level vs the US $, more Canadians cross the border to shop, but I would wager that most of their shopping is still done in Canada.

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Ignore historical evidence at your own peril. Many have and are still. As for shopping across the border: you obviously have your head in the sand and miss all the practical signs....or are you going to wait for 6 months to have stats canada tell you?