Kudos to Canada!

Now here is something you don't see every day.

Someone in the US has actually taken notice of something Canadians are doing better than the Americans.

You and I both know there are many things Canada does that are superior to the American way, however we won't go there... that would be negative and this is supposed to be positive...right?

Okay then, let's get on with it. This is from a recent addition of Newsweek. I have cobbled excerts and the full article is available with the link I have provided at the end of the excerts.

by Fareed Zakaria / Newsweek
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world.

Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn't grown in size... the others have all shrunk.

So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense.

Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers.

Canada has been remarkably responsible over the past decade or so. It has had 12 years of budget surpluses, and can now spend money to fuel a recovery from a strong position. The government has restructured the national pension system, placing it on a firm fiscal footing, unlike our own insolvent Social Security. Its health-care system is cheaper than America's by far (accounting for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent here), and yet does better on all major indexes. Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; "healthy life expectancy" is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America's largest car-producing region.

If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet-OK, sometimes boring-neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative.

 read the full article

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/183670

also see

Canada rated world's soundest bank system: survey 

 http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4981X220081009