Canadian PM Harper says Canada’s trade balance was hit by the global crisis and weaker commodity prices. The weaker Canadian dollar will help rectify the trade deficit, he said.

I imagine Harper is talking about the weakness already seen (USD/CAD was 0.91 a bit over a year ago) and not any fresh weakness today on the data.

USD/CAD trades at 1.2450 after stalling at 1.2530 after the lousy trade numbers. Canadian corporates continue to sell USD on strength each time we pop above 1.25.