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To restart an icy economy and free its citizens from strict Soviet-style money controls, all Iceland needs is a single planeload of Canadian dollars, a pair of Iceland economists told a packed Bay Street conference room Monday afternoon.

“It would fit nicely in a small plane, we just have to make sure it doesn’t get lost on the way,” said Heidar Gudjonsson, an investment manager and the chairman of Iceland’s Centre for Social and Economic Research.

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Mr. Gudjonsson, along with University of Iceland finance professor Ársæll Valfells, were in Toronto on Tuesday to make the first pitch to a Canadian audience on a unorthodox proposal to to pull the debt-ridden Nordic state from recession by abandoning the Icelandic krona for the Canadian dollar.

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Iceland was one of hardest hit by the 2008 financial collapse, rendering its currency effectively worthless. To prevent wealth from fleeing the country, Icelanders are on their fourth year of living under strict capital controls. International investment is banned, and when Mr. Gudjonsson left Reykjavik for Canada, he said he was only allowed to withdraw $2,570 for travel expenses. “The controls are stricter than they were in Eastern Europe under Communism,” said Mr. Gudjonsson.