What do you mean by this? After taxes, rent, food and other living costs, you're keeping almost 50% of your compensation to spend on whatever you want. How does purchasing power not matter? How much does a car cost in Canada? An iPhone? How much does a flight to Japan cost or a dinner in Tokyo? Of course the exchange rate is relevant even when you're not "hoarding" cash and have no intentions to return to Canada.
What you really want to be doing is comparing local purchasing power to local purchasing power, unless you're looking into cross-currency transactions. Sure local purchasing power can be affected by exchange rate (e.g. things that depend on imports), but that's indirect and is a bit more complicated than doing a direct currency conversion on your yearly (pre-tax) salary.
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What do you mean by this? After taxes, rent, food and other living costs, you're keeping almost 50% of your compensation to spend on whatever you want. How does purchasing power not matter? How much does a car cost in Canada? An iPhone? How much does a flight to Japan cost or a dinner in Tokyo? Of course the exchange rate is relevant even when you're not "hoarding" cash and have no intentions to return to Canada.
What you really want to be doing is comparing local purchasing power to local purchasing power, unless you're looking into cross-currency transactions. Sure local purchasing power can be affected by exchange rate (e.g. things that depend on imports), but that's indirect and is a bit more complicated than doing a direct currency conversion on your yearly (pre-tax) salary.