Speaking of which, I am genuinely curious about how the Liberals will respond. The average Liberal MP will probably think: “Oh, no… What will the headlines say on this one? What if somebody asks me why I supported this? What if somebody asks me why I objected to this?? Sheesh… I would rather not have to answer ANY questions particularly on things that are above my head.” I bet the Liberals will abstain yet again because they are too lazy to think this one through and they have no courage to take a stand on economic policy.
The Bloc will probably support this. I guess we will see if the House lasts long enough for any of this to play out.

Pat Martin is making a bold and risky move. He is in Winnipeg and the Mint makes coins there. He freely admits himself that 70% of the coinage goes into making pennies and he is recommending that the work be changed in favor of more productive tasks. You rarely get a NDPer taking such a stand. He actually risks pissing his constituents off.

DurWard,
If you really want to fight communism consistently, you would promote abolishing both legal tender and taxation. Central banking is the epitome of communism in the market for currency.
I challenge you to re-evaluate your objection to abolishing the penny. This bill does not increase the money supply. Nor does this bill mandate price increases. Think of what you just said: “Inflation will drive inflation.” or “Price increases will drive price increases.” That is all you just said. You may as well fear the boogey-man. It is not rational to say that retailers WILL automatically round up instead of round down.

What I find a bit shocking is that you are not the only one with this ignorant economic outlook. In fact, despite his correct conclusion, Pat Martin is suckered into accepting an incorrect reasoning and so is Doug Porter, the deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. They just reason that abolishing the penny will have a negligible effect on the inflation rate.

Well, the truth is that the inflation rate is not caused by denominations in currency.

The sad reality is that “inflation” is now a word used by governments and bankers to hide the reality of what actually occurs: they inflate the money supply. They are hiding the fact that they are spending money and credit they do not have! Price increases are the end result. Hmm…. this is giving me an idea for a future extended blog post…. There are so many myths about money.

Thought this would be a slam dunk for the crowd that’s always chattering about tax dollars.

Go figure.

Martin should have asked Towes to introduce it.

Abolishing the penny is a novel idea, but one has to wonder about the practicality of it.

Durward: If you bought gas with a credit/debit card, you’d still play the same price.

Also, since the nickel becomes the lowest-valued coin, accountants can chase a 1 nickel discrepancy all they like.

I think we should stick to the same system with both cash and electronic transactions. I can just see it now, the idiot in front of me in line at Timmy’s, deciding to pay for their $1.13 coffee with their debit card instead of cash, all to save 2 cents. 1 price is far preferable.

BTW, pennies minted before 1996 are already worth over 2 cents in base metal value alone…

I’ve watched accountants chase a 1 penny discrepancy for weeks to make sure the books are in order.

Do you round up or down or to the nearest nickel?

A 5% GST sure helps this, but not when prices are $4.99…