The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that the Canadian dollar could be in for a rough ride if the Bank of Canada cuts interest rates sooner and deeper than the Federal Reserve, a scenario that economists suggest is becoming increasingly likely as the U.S. economy continues to outperform. The Post's Gig Suhanic writes that in a sign of what could come, the loonie fell more than a half per cent against the U.S. dollar in the wake of the Bank of Canada's interest rate announcement last Wednesday, during which Governor Tiff Macklem said a cut at the June rate meeting was now "within the realm of possibilities." That put the weakened loonie in the crosshairs of a stronger American currency and the Bank of Canada possibly at the mercy of a Federal Reserve that appears in no rush to start cutting. "Pushing out Fed rate cuts makes it more difficult for the Bank of Canada to ease without causing CAD to crater," Derek Holt, head of capital markets economics at Bank of Nova Scotia, said in note to investors. "If there is one thing one needs to understand about Canada ... it is very much the fact that it is not fully independent of the United States. Nor is the Bank of Canada fully independent of the Fed."