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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has accused gas stations of “price gouging” consumers on holidays and long weekends, reigniting a long-held belief among some that retailers often step on the throats of Canadian drivers during periods of high demand.

But is that really the case—and moreover, is it ever wise for governments to intervene when prices are on the rise?

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Dan McTeague, senior analyst at GasBuddy, says government attempts to control prices are misguided efforts that ignore the root of the problem: a weak Canadian dollar dragged down by ironically low prices for Canadian crude oil, and increasingly slim operating margins for gasoline and diesel distributors.

“Prices have nothing to do with what (domestic) retailers are doing, and everything to do with global markets,” McTeague said.

The weak Canadian dollar alone translates into a roughly 15 per cent premium on Canadian pump prices, McTeague said. The loonie was trading around 77 cents this week compared to the U.S. greenback. In a cruel twist, the difficulty facing Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. and TransCanada Corp. in building new export pipelines has placed a discount on domestic crude oil, hurting the value of our currency—which, in turn, has weakened Canada’s buying power of goods priced in U.S. dollars, including oil.