See now my Canadian brethren what you seem to forget occasionally is that Americans actually CAN influence their government and they know it.

When the US tried to do away with their $1 bill for the Susan B Anthony coin (and yeah that was way before the Loony) they tried to just force it on the public but the majority of the US population said, "F**k that, shove your coin up your ***" and nobody would use it. Now there is a pretty healthy stash of $1 coins sitting around in a vault that nobody will use.

Up here we all bitched and moaned about the Loony when it came out but then all shrugged our shoulders and just decided to deal with it. We try to fool ourselves by talking about the practicality and longevity of coin vs. paper bills but in reality the gov't shoved it down our throats and because we were all such good boys and girls we got a second helping with the $2 bill replacement too..

SO - in the US first the gov't has to give everyone a nice big propoganda campaign until everyone is happy with every little change they want to do.