OUR BIG CHANCE:

Given Canada's strength, this may be our time to pull out of America's shadow
Maclean's – Monday, August 31, 2009

For Canada, a country that has spent the better part of 20 years nervously wringing its hands over its perceived inadequacies, the dramatic reversal over the past year has been striking. Our banks were once seen as lacking innovation; now world leaders hail the boring Big Five as being among some of the safest and most profitable banks in the world. We fretted that our economy was overly reliant on commodities; now our rocks, oil and gas are seen as a natural hedge against havoc in the manufacturing sector. We worried that Canada's strict mortgage rules were a drag on our housing market; now we can brag that we don't put people into homes they can't afford. Almost any way you look at it, Canada is uniquely positioned. "You'd have to go back to those golden early Trudeau years of '69, '70 to find a time when things were aligned so well," says Glen Hodgson, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada. Last week the board predicted that next year Canada will see a huge leap in our ranking by international economic performance, from 11th place out of 17 countries in 2008, to fifth. Canada's rise will be driven by GDP growth, improved employment growth and increased foreign investment.