BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – The pre-holiday bustle of the city’s main shopping district is taking on a bit of a Canadian accent this year as shoppers from north of the border travel south to take advantage of an unusually strong Canadian dollar.

Carole Cassoff of Montreal got a Blackberry message about some UGG boots at a store on the Church Street Marketplace that, though they weren’t on sale, cost $100 less than they would have back home.

When she got to Danform Shoes, she met up with the friends who had sent the message, and one, Lisa Wolk, already had picked out two pair.

Cassoff, Wolk and Rhonda Friedman, had left husbands and kids back home and come south Thursday evening for a weekend shopping binge beginning Friday.

They’re taking advantage of the strength of the Canadian dollar, known as the loonie for the bird pictured on the bill. The loonie in recent months has been equal or slightly above the U.S. dollar in value for the first time in decades.

The women dressed in old clothes for the trip south.

“I hear that you can leave them beside the garbage here and someone will take them,” Wolk said. “This jacket’s going. Someone else will enjoy it.”

Tim Shea, vice president of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Vermont retailers are benefiting from the strong Canadian dollar and from a strong presence at a recent trade show in Quebec.

“Montreal is a city with 3 million people, 90 minutes away,” Shea said. “You can’t really not think about Montreal.”

Canadian native and Waterbury resident Ian Smith said his parents from Toronto were in shopper’s heaven.

“They’re beside themselves because now their money is worth something. Their $20 is worth $20,” he said.

The joy could be short-lived though. By next year’s holiday shopping season, new security requirements will require Canadians for the first time to present a passport to enter the United States.

Vermont’s governor and congressional delegation have been working to delay or modify the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which Shea said would be “devastating” for Vermont merchants.

“We all want security,” Shea said. “But not at the expense of all the commerce that goes on between the two countries.”

AP-ES-11-25-07 1656EST