2010 photo of now-deposed Arab leaders encapsulates Mideast transformation

BEIRUT - Laughing for the cameras, the Arab leaders appear nothing if not secure in their power, four longtime members of the Middle East coterie of rulers-for-life.

How times have changed. The photograph from an October 2010 Arab-African summit shows the leaders of Libya, Egypt, Yemen andTunisia, all of them now deposed — and in one case dead — since the Arab Spring revolutions began sweeping through the Middle East last year.

In the photo, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi wears black sunglasses and distinctive robes, with his arms draped around Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, both of them grinning. To one side is Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, standing with his hands clasped, smiling and relaxed.

Today, Saleh is out of power, Ben Ali is in exile, Mubarak is on trial and Gadhafi is dead, killed by rebel fighters. Their countries are enduring often-painful transitions.

At Thursday's Arab League summit in Baghdad, the region's new order was apparent. Gadhafi, a perennial source of drama at the summits with his outbursts, is gone, replaced by the head of Libya's transitional government. Tunisia's new president, a human rights activist, is the country's first leader since the demise of Ben Ali's 23 year-long dictatorship.

Egypt and Yemen, caught up in their domestic turmoil, sent only midlevel officials.

Also absent from the Baghdad summit is Bashar Assad, the Syrian leader who is holding onto power despite a bloody uprising against his rule. The Arab League has suspended Syria's membership, citing the government's deadly crackdown on dissent.

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The Associated Press looks at where the four former Arab leaders pictured in the 2010 photo are now.

— TUNISIA:

Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, 2011 after a monthlong uprising that sparked the larger Arab Spring. He has maintained a low profile since his ouster, but has been convicted in absentia for corruption and other crimes. Now a human rights activist is president, and a moderate Islamist jailed for years by the old regime is prime minister at the head of a diverse coalition, after the freest elections in Tunisia's history.

But challenges remain. Unemployment has risen to almost 20 per cent today from 13 per cent a year ago, and economic growth has stagnated as investment dries up and tourism, once a pillar of Tunisia's economy, evaporates.

— EGYPT:

Mubarak is on trial, facing charges of complicity in the killing of protesters. His first appearance in court on Aug. 3, lying down on a gurney behind bars, was a sign for many of the end of an era. It was also the first trial of an Arab leader by his own people, and was celebrated as the beginning of the end of decades of impunity.

The trial has dragged on, however, and the country is facing deep divisions over the military council that took over from Mubarak. The council has promised to transfer power to a civilian administration by July.

— LIBYA:

After leading Libya for four decades, Gadhafi spent his final weeks shuttling from hideout to hideout in his hometown of Sirte until rebel fighters captured and killed him in October.

More than six months later, the central government in Libya has proved incapable of governing at all, with breakaway movements emerging in the east and south. Post-Gadhafi, Libyans dreamed their country could become flush with petrodollars, a magnet for investment. Now they worry that it is turning more into another Somalia, a nation that has had no effective government for more than 20 years.

— YEMEN:

Saleh clung to power for nearly a year in the face of protests against his rule, staying in place even after a bomb blast in June left him with burns over much of his body. Finally, under a Gulf-brokered agreement, he handed over power to his vice-president, who earlier this year was elected president.

But Saleh remains the head of his party and his relatives and loyalists still hold powerful positions in the military, security forces and government. Many Yemenis accuse him of using those tools to undermine his successor in hopes of one day returning to power.

Canadians offer their two cents on penny

When the penny was dropped, Canadians didn't hesitate to give their two cents.

Word that the federal government had scrapped the one-cent piece as part of its 2012 budget instantly touched off strong reaction across the country.

Everyone from coin collectors to armchair economists hastened to offer a penny for each others thoughts after learning the coin was enduring its last gasp as a form of viable currency.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the penny's production costs now exceed its worth. Each coin costs 1.6 cents to mint, or a total of $11 million a year. The last penny is due to be struck this fall.

Twitter was abuzz with the news within minutes of Thursday's announcement. For every cry of indignation, another comment would appear praising the government for being so penny wise.

Within mere minutes of the news breaking a Twitter account dedicated to saving the penny was set up and unleashed a torrent of quips about the impending demise of the copper coin.

"Want my two cents? This sucks," tweeted the operator of the account aptly named SaveThePenny, which took the persona of the coin. "I was such a pretty penny too."

Some Canadians seemed to express a degree of sadness over the death of the penny and threw their support behind a call to save the coin.

"Soon a child will be born that will never understand the saying of a penny saved is a penny earned," tweeted one person. "No penny means I can't say 'penny for your thoughts' anymore," lamented another.

Colleen MacIsaac, a theatre worker in Halifax, said she would honestly miss the penny.

"I have often not had very much money in my life," said the 26-year-old. "So there's been many a time when I've been scrimping through the bottom of my purse and been able to collect the last five pennies that have been able to allow me to purchase something."

Others, however, expressed something more akin to mock dismay.

"Without the penny, what will misers pinch?!" tweeted one user. "Canada got rid of the penny? BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY CENTS," quipped another.

Still more expressed sheer joy over plans to scrap the lowest physical form of Canada's currency.

"I AM SO EXCITED!!! The Penny is finally going to be killed! This should have happened years ago," tweeted one user.

Christine Gossland, 24, from Vancouver, will not miss the penny.

"I don't think we should have the penny anymore," said Gosselin, who just finished her degree in public relations. "I don't think that it's really very helpful. They accumulate, people throw them out. It's like money being thrown out all the time."

Amid all the chatter however, a thread of serious discussion emerged over whether the government was using news of its penny plans to divert attention away from other, more contentious, cuts in the budget.

"The penny is a dumb distraction. The pennies, or nickels, we will have to earn working years longer before retirement are far more important," tweeted one person, referring to the government's plan to gradually move the age of eligibility for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement to 67 from 65.

"Killing the penny to distract from real budget issues. Its death has been in the works for ages, well played to announce on bdgt12," said another.

On the retail side, word of the coin's demise came as good news to at least one store owner.

For Mary Pascale, co-owner of Pascale Gourmet in Toronto, the penny has been nothing but a nuisance for customers who stop in to stock up on Italian bread, wedges of high-end cheeses and other delicacies whose price tags often come in a cent or two under the dollar.

Rounding up or down to the nearest five-cent denomination makes all the sense in the world, she said.

"I honestly do that already because it takes time to count all the change," Pascale said. "For me it's positive. I can use the slot for something else."

Catherine Serge, a 57-year-old Montreal programmer, was concerned about the prospect of prices being rounded up.

"I'm sentimental about it but I can understand that it's very costly. But I also worry about the price jumps now — instead of being six cents, seven cents of course it's going to be rounded up to the nearest nickel. It's bad and good."

Meanwhile, some who study coins for a living saw Thursday's announcement as the end of an era that predates confederation.

Coin dealer Tom Preston of the Calgary Coin Gallery said the coin was first produced in 1858 and has remained in relatively heavy rotation since then. Despite its historical value, Preston believed its swan song is long overdue.

"It should have been done years ago," he said. "A penny doesn't buy anything anymore. It's inflated itself out of usefulness."

Preston said he's been preparing for the penny's demise for years, stocking up on rare coins produced when fewer one-cent pieces were being struck.

Such items will be hot collectors items for years to come, he said, adding even more common coins will begin piling up in shoeboxes across the country. The penny will likely be out of circulation three years from its final minting, he said.

Pennies will still be legal tender, but as they slowly vanish from circulation, prices will have to be rounded up or down.

If the customer has the pennies, they can use them. Payments with debit or credit cards, or cheques, can also be to the penny. But if the customer is paying cash and doesn't have the pennies, the total will go up or down to the nearest nickel.

Canadians offer their two cents on penny

When the penny was dropped, Canadians didn't hesitate to give their two cents.

Word that the federal government had scrapped the one-cent piece as part of its 2012 budget instantly touched off strong reaction across the country.

Everyone from coin collectors to armchair economists hastened to offer a penny for each others thoughts after learning the coin was enduring its last gasp as a form of viable currency.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the penny's production costs now exceed its worth. Each coin costs 1.6 cents to mint, or a total of $11 million a year. The last penny is due to be struck this fall.

Twitter was abuzz with the news within minutes of Thursday's announcement. For every cry of indignation, another comment would appear praising the government for being so penny wise.

Within mere minutes of the news breaking a Twitter account dedicated to saving the penny was set up and unleashed a torrent of quips about the impending demise of the copper coin.

"Want my two cents? This sucks," tweeted the operator of the account aptly named SaveThePenny, which took the persona of the coin. "I was such a pretty penny too."

Some Canadians seemed to express a degree of sadness over the death of the penny and threw their support behind a call to save the coin.

"Soon a child will be born that will never understand the saying of a penny saved is a penny earned," tweeted one person. "No penny means I can't say 'penny for your thoughts' anymore," lamented another.

Colleen MacIsaac, a theatre worker in Halifax, said she would honestly miss the penny.

"I have often not had very much money in my life," said the 26-year-old. "So there's been many a time when I've been scrimping through the bottom of my purse and been able to collect the last five pennies that have been able to allow me to purchase something."

Others, however, expressed something more akin to mock dismay.

"Without the penny, what will misers pinch?!" tweeted one user. "Canada got rid of the penny? BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY CENTS," quipped another.

Still more expressed sheer joy over plans to scrap the lowest physical form of Canada's currency.

"I AM SO EXCITED!!! The Penny is finally going to be killed! This should have happened years ago," tweeted one user.

Christine Gossland, 24, from Vancouver, will not miss the penny.

"I don't think we should have the penny anymore," said Gosselin, who just finished her degree in public relations. "I don't think that it's really very helpful. They accumulate, people throw them out. It's like money being thrown out all the time."

Amid all the chatter however, a thread of serious discussion emerged over whether the government was using news of its penny plans to divert attention away from other, more contentious, cuts in the budget.

"The penny is a dumb distraction. The pennies, or nickels, we will have to earn working years longer before retirement are far more important," tweeted one person, referring to the government's plan to gradually move the age of eligibility for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement to 67 from 65.

"Killing the penny to distract from real budget issues. Its death has been in the works for ages, well played to announce on bdgt12," said another.

On the retail side, word of the coin's demise came as good news to at least one store owner.

For Mary Pascale, co-owner of Pascale Gourmet in Toronto, the penny has been nothing but a nuisance for customers who stop in to stock up on Italian bread, wedges of high-end cheeses and other delicacies whose price tags often come in a cent or two under the dollar.

Rounding up or down to the nearest five-cent denomination makes all the sense in the world, she said.

"I honestly do that already because it takes time to count all the change," Pascale said. "For me it's positive. I can use the slot for something else."

Catherine Serge, a 57-year-old Montreal programmer, was concerned about the prospect of prices being rounded up.

"I'm sentimental about it but I can understand that it's very costly. But I also worry about the price jumps now — instead of being six cents, seven cents of course it's going to be rounded up to the nearest nickel. It's bad and good."

Meanwhile, some who study coins for a living saw Thursday's announcement as the end of an era that predates confederation.

Coin dealer Tom Preston of the Calgary Coin Gallery said the coin was first produced in 1858 and has remained in relatively heavy rotation since then. Despite its historical value, Preston believed its swan song is long overdue.

"It should have been done years ago," he said. "A penny doesn't buy anything anymore. It's inflated itself out of usefulness."

Preston said he's been preparing for the penny's demise for years, stocking up on rare coins produced when fewer one-cent pieces were being struck.

Such items will be hot collectors items for years to come, he said, adding even more common coins will begin piling up in shoeboxes across the country. The penny will likely be out of circulation three years from its final minting, he said.

Pennies will still be legal tender, but as they slowly vanish from circulation, prices will have to be rounded up or down.

If the customer has the pennies, they can use them. Payments with debit or credit cards, or cheques, can also be to the penny. But if the customer is paying cash and doesn't have the pennies, the total will go up or down to the nearest nickel.

When the penny was dropped, Canadians didn't hesitate to give their two cents.

Word that the federal government had scrapped the one-cent piece as part of its 2012 budget instantly touched off strong reaction across the country.

Everyone from coin collectors to armchair economists hastened to offer a penny for each others thoughts after learning the coin was enduring its last gasp as a form of viable currency.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the penny's production costs now exceed its worth. Each coin costs 1.6 cents to mint, or a total of $11 million a year. The last penny is due to be struck this fall.

Twitter was abuzz with the news within minutes of Thursday's announcement. For every cry of indignation, another comment would appear praising the government for being so penny wise.

Within mere minutes of the news breaking a Twitter account dedicated to saving the penny was set up and unleashed a torrent of quips about the impending demise of the copper coin.

"Want my two cents? This sucks," tweeted the operator of the account aptly named SaveThePenny, which took the persona of the coin. "I was such a pretty penny too."

Some Canadians seemed to express a degree of sadness over the death of the penny and threw their support behind a call to save the coin.

"Soon a child will be born that will never understand the saying of a penny saved is a penny earned," tweeted one person. "No penny means I can't say 'penny for your thoughts' anymore," lamented another.

Colleen MacIsaac, a theatre worker in Halifax, said she would honestly miss the penny.

"I have often not had very much money in my life," said the 26-year-old. "So there's been many a time when I've been scrimping through the bottom of my purse and been able to collect the last five pennies that have been able to allow me to purchase something."

Others, however, expressed something more akin to mock dismay.

"Without the penny, what will misers pinch?!" tweeted one user. "Canada got rid of the penny? BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY CENTS," quipped another.

Still more expressed sheer joy over plans to scrap the lowest physical form of Canada's currency.

"I AM SO EXCITED!!! The Penny is finally going to be killed! This should have happened years ago," tweeted one user.

Christine Gossland, 24, from Vancouver, will not miss the penny.

"I don't think we should have the penny anymore," said Gosselin, who just finished her degree in public relations. "I don't think that it's really very helpful. They accumulate, people throw them out. It's like money being thrown out all the time."

Amid all the chatter however, a thread of serious discussion emerged over whether the government was using news of its penny plans to divert attention away from other, more contentious, cuts in the budget.

"The penny is a dumb distraction. The pennies, or nickels, we will have to earn working years longer before retirement are far more important," tweeted one person, referring to the government's plan to gradually move the age of eligibility for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement to 67 from 65.

"Killing the penny to distract from real budget issues. Its death has been in the works for ages, well played to announce on bdgt12," said another.

On the retail side, word of the coin's demise came as good news to at least one store owner.

For Mary Pascale, co-owner of Pascale Gourmet in Toronto, the penny has been nothing but a nuisance for customers who stop in to stock up on Italian bread, wedges of high-end cheeses and other delicacies whose price tags often come in a cent or two under the dollar.

Rounding up or down to the nearest five-cent denomination makes all the sense in the world, she said.

"I honestly do that already because it takes time to count all the change," Pascale said. "For me it's positive. I can use the slot for something else."

Catherine Serge, a 57-year-old Montreal programmer, was concerned about the prospect of prices being rounded up.

"I'm sentimental about it but I can understand that it's very costly. But I also worry about the price jumps now — instead of being six cents, seven cents of course it's going to be rounded up to the nearest nickel. It's bad and good."

Meanwhile, some who study coins for a living saw Thursday's announcement as the end of an era that predates confederation.

Coin dealer Tom Preston of the Calgary Coin Gallery said the coin was first produced in 1858 and has remained in relatively heavy rotation since then. Despite its historical value, Preston believed its swan song is long overdue.

"It should have been done years ago," he said. "A penny doesn't buy anything anymore. It's inflated itself out of usefulness."

Preston said he's been preparing for the penny's demise for years, stocking up on rare coins produced when fewer one-cent pieces were being struck.

Such items will be hot collectors items for years to come, he said, adding even more common coins will begin piling up in shoeboxes across the country. The penny will likely be out of circulation three years from its final minting, he said.

Pennies will still be legal tender, but as they slowly vanish from circulation, prices will have to be rounded up or down.

If the customer has the pennies, they can use them. Payments with debit or credit cards, or cheques, can also be to the penny. But if the customer is paying cash and doesn't have the pennies, the total will go up or down to the nearest nickel.

How the pennies’ disappearance will change Canadian lives

Pennies, those coppery discs that weigh down your wallet and trigger the illusion you have more spare change value than you actually do, may soon be going the way of the two-dollar bill,according to the CBC.

As the news network reports, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Thursday that starting this fall, pennies will be phased out of existence due to low purchasing power and rising production costs. That means the mounds of one-cent coins currently nestled between your couch cushions will eventually become a collector's item after the Royal Canadian Mint stops distributing pennies to financial institutions. In a pamphlet outlining reasons for the change, Ottawa labeled the coin a "burden to the economy," citing an $11-million-per-year loss due to rising metal costs and decreasing purchasing value.

To offset the confusion and to ostensibly avoid the need to start drilling nickels into slivers for the appropriate amount of change, prices at cash registers will be rounded up or down to the nearest five-cent increment.

And though it will take many years before the copper coins become scarce, here are a few random things that will no longer involve pennies once they finally disappear:

*Unicef change boxes at Halloween.

*Finding a penny, picking it up and all the day having good luck (doesn't have quite the same ring with "dime").

*Making five wishes in a fountain per the single, lonely wish you can make with a nickel.

*Collecting bags full of pennies, hauling them to the drug store to sort and then using the sum total to buy an ice cream.

*Showing off your dexterity at keg parties by flipping pennies into a glass.

*Irritating people in the line behind you by insisting on paying a $9.99 charge in exact change to get rid of those coins.

*Using them at remote Illinois toll booths.

*Improvising when you can't find a screwdriver and need something like-sized.

*Incorporating them as substitutes for your missing board game pieces.

*Drilling holes in a stack and making penny jewelry.

Federal budget kills the penny, cuts CBC spending

OTTAWA — The Conservative government tabled a pro-business budget on Thursday that also includes changes to Old Age Security, the death of the penny, cuts to the civil service and the CBC, but continued spending growth, too.

The budget was clearly a non-election year offering, lacking obvious vote-getting nods to families and interest groups and instead heavy on changes that promote research and development and will appease businesses — especially those in the resource sector, where the government announced a streamlined “one project, one review” approval process.

“The federal government is increasingly focusing on economic issues of national importance for our country,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters shortly before tabling the budget in Ottawa. “Major projects, job creation … what do we do with an ageing population?”

Under Mr. Flaherty’s Economic Action Plan 2012 — the Conservative government’s “largest” budget document, at 498 pages — the eligibility age for OAS will gradually increase from 65 to 67 beginning in 2023. OAS is the government’s single largest program, and the cost is expected to grow from $38-billion in 2011 to $108-billion in 2030 as Canadians live longer and as fewer workers emerge to fill positions vacated by retirement.

“They say 50 is the new 40,” said Elio Luongo, a managing partner at KPMG. “This is an interesting way to [encourage] people to stay in the workforce longer.”

The budget was clearly a non-election year offering, lacking obvious vote-getting nods to families and interest groups and instead heavy on changes that promote research and development and will appease businesses — especially those in the resource sector, where the government announced a streamlined “one project, one review” approval process.

“The federal government is increasingly focusing on economic issues of national importance for our country,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters shortly before tabling the budget in Ottawa. “Major projects, job creation … what do we do with an ageing population?”

Under Mr. Flaherty’s Economic Action Plan 2012 — the Conservative government’s “largest” budget document, at 498 pages — the eligibility age for OAS will gradually increase from 65 to 67 beginning in 2023. OAS is the government’s single largest program, and the cost is expected to grow from $38-billion in 2011 to $108-billion in 2030 as Canadians live longer and as fewer workers emerge to fill positions vacated by retirement.

“They say 50 is the new 40,” said Elio Luongo, a managing partner at KPMG. “This is an interesting way to [encourage] people to stay in the workforce longer.”

Canadians say goodbye, or adieu, to the penny

During Thursday’s budget announcement, finance minister Jim Flaherty announced that the Canadian one cent coin was going to be phased out, saying “pennies take up too much space on our dressers at home.” The Post’s Tristin Hopper takes a look at why the penny is due for the axe.

No more pennies? Why?
They are worth almost nothing, they are cumbersome and they cost the government at least $130-million per year to keep in circulation. Most vending machines do not accept them and bartenders sneer at the sight of them – yet the Mint is still busy pumping out 25 pennies per Canadian per year – at a cost of 1.5 cents apiece. “If a coin has such low purchasing power that consumers refuse it, throw it away or horde it without worrying about putting it back into the distribution system, it would seem logical to stop producing it,” reads a 2007 report by Desjardins urging the penny’s demise. The senate joined in with an anti-penny report in 2010. “It is a piece of currency, quite frankly, that lacks currency,” said Senator Irving Gerstein at the time (the joke is popular; during Thursday’s budget announcement Mr. Flaherty said “the penny is a currency without any currency.”)

Was anybody actually using pennies, anyway?

According to Desjardins, the penny does have some friends: the mining industry, armoured trucks and manufacturers of coins rolls and boxes. “Are we ready to bear an additional cost of over $100-million per year on the pretext that we must artificially support these companies?,” reads the report.

What will we do without them? 
As per the 2010 senate recommendations, Canadians will simply be asked to round prices up or down to the nearest nickel. Credit card users, however, will still be required to pay to pay to the cent. Does that discrepancy leave Canada vulnerable to small-scale fraud, like the Richard Pryor character in Superman III who scams his employer by filling a dummy account with the fractions of cents left over from financial transactions? Maybe, but so far nobody else seems to have had a problem with ditching low-denomination coins. Like most currency-related issues, Canada is way behind the times on this one. More than a dozen countries including Israel, Switzerland and Brazil have successfully eliminated single-unit coins. Not to mention the iconic British half-penny, which was phased out under Margaret Thatcher.

How long have been carrying around these things?
Thursday’s budget announcement brings an end to 104 years of Canadian pennydom. On January 2, 1908, the governor general’s wife herself struck the country’s first one-cent coin at what would become the Royal Canadian Mint. Age has not been kind to the tiny coin: Today’s pennies are worth less than one quarter of the value of a penny in 1904. Although King Edward VII’s portrait was on the coins back then, maple leaves have remained fixed on the coin from the very beginning – except for 1967 when an Alex Colville image of a rock dove in flight was minted to celebrate Canada’s centennial.

What are pennies made of, anyway?
Up until the 1990s, pennies used to be made of copper. In 1997, to cut costs, the Mint changed the formula to a zinc core with only a thin plating of copper. In 2000, the recipe was changed again to give the coins a steel core. If the Mint had not made the switch, high copper prices and metal thieves may have ended the penny’s reign long before Jim Flaherty had a chance. Three months ago, a Peterborough man was electrocuted while trying to steal copper from a transformer station. With people taking those kinds of risks, do you think they would have hesitated to melt down a few rolls of worth of solid copper pennies?

While we’re tossing out coins, why not the nickel?
Soon enough. Nickels are already relatively useless – and like all coins they’re dropping in value each year. New Zealand phased out its one-cent coin in the 1980s and then its five-cent coin in 2009. It’s a strategy Desjardins strongly recommends, since eliminating more than one coin at a time could cause unneeded confusion and economic damage. Once the penny is successfully gone, “the federal government should consider, a few years later, the relevance of removing the five-cent coin,” stated Desjardins in 2007.

Will I seem old-fashioned if I say “penny for your thoughts,” “penny-pincher” or “a penny saved is a penny earned”?  
Do you know why your car’s control panel is called a dashboard? It refers to a board mounted at the front of horse-drawn carriages to prevent mud from the horse’s hooves from being “dashed” at the driver. Your penny references remain contemporary.

Feds pull the penny

The federal government has given its two cents' worth on the penny — it doesn’t like it.

“We will eliminate the penny,” said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. “Pennies take up too much space on our dressers at home. They take up for too much time for small businesses trying to grow and create jobs.”

The government said it costs 1.6 cents to produce a penny, so by fall, it will stop issuing the coins in order to save $11 million a year.

Anti-penny campaigner Pat Martin was all smiles at the news.

“I never thought I’d see the day that I got something into a Conservative budget,” said the NDP MP.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said pennies just don’t make sense.

“Our members are very supportive of getting rid of the penny,” said CFIB Catherine Swift. “Pennies, unfortunately, have become more of a pain than they’re worth.”

One-cent coins will gradually be withdrawn from circulation, but consumers can continue to use them indefinitely.

When pennies aren’t available for cash transactions, businesses will have to round the after-tax price to the nearest nickel, which concerns the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

Martin isn’t worried, though.

“People will catch on to that quickly,” he said.

Swift said rounding won’t hurt consumers.

“In other jurisdictions that have done similar things, like got rid of their low-value coin, it turns out to be a wash,” said Swift.

Non-cash payments, by credit card or cheque for example, will still be charged to the exact cent, even without the penny.

Penny to disappear from Canadian coinage

OTTAWA - There may still be pennies from heaven, but they won't be coming from the mint much longer.

The humble one-cent piece is set to disappear from Canadian pockets, a victim of inflation.

Thursday's federal budget said the Royal Canadian Mint will strike the last of the little coins this fall.

The budget says the cost of minting a penny has risen to 1.6 cents or $11 million a year. Its purchasing power has fallen to a 20th of its original value.

"Some Canadians consider the penny more of a nuisance than a useful coin," the budget documents said.

And so the coin will go the way of the old 25-cent shinplaster.

"The penny is a currency without any currency in Canada," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said at a news conference.

It's nothing but a nuisance for business, he added.

Pennies will still be legal tender, but as they slowly vanish from circulation, prices will have to be rounded up or down.

If the customer has the pennies, they can use them. Payments with debit or credit cards, or cheques, can also be to the penny. But if the customer is paying cash and doesn't have the pennies, the total will go up or down to the nearest nickel. For example, $1.02 will become $1 and $1.03 will be $1.05.

The budget said experience in other countries that have dropped low-denomination coins suggests that rounding will be fair, and there will be no impact on inflation.

As for those jars, boxes and bags of pennies sitting in countless drawers across the country, the government suggests people donate them to charities.

The penny has been under fire for years. New Democrat MP Pat Martin has introduced private member's bills over the years to kill it and expressed surprise at the budget measure.

"Nobody's more surprised than me that I got something into a Conservative budget," he said.

Martin said the penny should have disappeared years ago.

"There's 30 billion pennies in circulation and every year they were minting a billion more," he said. "It was just a no-brainer, slam dunk, that it's a place where we could save some money.

"They cost more to produce than they are worth, nobody likes them, they have no commercial value."

The disappearing penny will likely have little economic impact, but it may require some cultural adjustments.

Penny candy? A relic of the past. The penny arcade? Already gone.

And some old adages will likely fade away, too.

What are people going to pinch?

Will thoughts now cost a nickel?

See a penny? Leave it.

Penny-wise? Just foolish.

Take care of the nickels and the dollars will take care of themselves?

A penny saved is ... not much.

London 2012 Olympics diary: James Magnussen to try out Aquatics Centre – but not the pool

Warning: there's a missile heading to London this summer (Photo: Reuters)

The fastest 100m freestyle swimmer in the world – James "The Missile" Magnussen visited London this week for some pre-Games promotions but won't get a chance to swim in the Olympic Aquatics Centre.

Magnussen, an Australian, said he would don his budgie smugglers inside the centre to get a feel for what it might be like at the end of July.

"I'll just strip down to the swimmers and walk up and down the side of the pool and try and get a feel for it, something like that," said Magnussen, 20.

In a threat to his rivals, Magnussen said he had suffered some respiratory illness during the recent Australian trials in Adelaide but didn't want to reveal it at the time lest it give his opponents a sniff of his weakness. His trial time was just short of the world record.

Smith sent home

Teenage strongwoman Zoe Smith has revealed that she had no choice but to quit British Weightlifting’s high-performance centre in Leeds and return home to Greenwich due to child-protection regulations, myTelegraph Sport colleague Simon Hart tells me.

Smith, 17, took a year out of school to move to Leeds last year but is now preparing for the Olympics back at her old Europa gym in Bexley.

“They said no under-18s can live in the house due to child protection rules,” she said. “I’m not 18 until next month so I’m back down in London now.”

Smith, a special guest at yesterday’s Balfour Beatty London Youth Games, admitted she was happy to be back at home.

“It seems to be the best thing for me anyway because I felt a bit like I was over-training in Leeds,” she said. “My coach down here knows me much better.”

Queue forming behind Jacques Rogge

Quite a few International Olympic Committee members are jockeying for support to run for the presidency when Jacques Rogge steps down next year.

Senior IOC members Thomas Bach of Germany and Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico  are the current front-runners but behind the scenes others are canvassing the numbers.

Princess Haya of the United Arab Emirates heads the International Equestrian Federation and is gathering support,  with insiders saying she has handfuls of votes, so too the Australian John Coates. More than 100 IOC members will vote.

Protest Olympics

Meanwhile Rogge will present his final report on the London Olympic preparations at a press conference tomorrow morning, but officials are expecting to have to wade through protest action organised by Bhopal activists upset about the Dow Chemical sponsorship of the London Olympic Stadium wrap and its role as an IOC global sponsor.

Shoe companies Nike, adidas – the official Team GB sponsor – and Usain Bolt's Puma will also be the subject of protest action on Saturday by UK Feminista activists angered about women's working conditions in Bangladeshi factories which produce the footwear. Occupy protesters have moved into the Olympic basketball practice venue being constructed at Leyton Marshes.

White elephant, what white elephant?

Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said today he was pretty relaxed about having two Olympic venues still to find tenants for post-Games use, saying there would be no white elephants.

"I am pleased to have got six out of eight done but the last two will be knocked off before the Games," he said. Tenders are currently out for the media centre and the Olympic Stadium.

Robertson described the Olympic Legacy "jewels" as being the Olympic Park and the nearby Westfield shopping centre and while he ticked off economic and sports benefits he noted that using the Olympics to bring about large scale social change was "debatable".