size of government

When Americans look to Canada, they generally think of an ally, though one dominated by socialist economic policies. But the Canada of the 1970s and early 1980s—the era of left-wing Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau—no longer exists. America's northern neighbor has transformed itself economically over the last 20 years.

This past weekend, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty encouraged the G20 countries to rapidly implement their stimulus packages, highlighting that his government provided a greater stimulus budget than the G20 countries agreed was needed. While that may be so, his government's 2009 budget also turned back the clock on Canada's 15-year record of sound fiscal management and set the nation back down the path of larger, more interventionalist government.