There are speculations that the UK and China are going to forge economic ties to reverse the tide for both countries. https://www.yzzk.com/cfm/content_archive.cfm?id=1467258059016&docissue=2016-27
It is always good to have a MasterCard around. Costco accepts it and Walmart is screaming about not accepting Visa.
Two summers ago when I landed in Singapore, I was caught by surprise when I found out that all of their taxi's accept MasterCard only. Lucky that I bought some Singapore dollars...
People are already finding ways to get around it: http://www.cknw.com/2016/07/27/vancouver-realtors-coach-foreign-buyers-on-ways-to-avoid-new-transfer-tax/
Last time I did a SIM change by calling in, the Roger's rep asked what kind of phone the new SIM was going into, and muttered about there are some differences in settings on their end regarding the virtual voicemail.