Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light?

U.S. should see Canada as 'land of the future'
By Rebecca Lindell
Postmedia News January 6, 2011

Canada has strong banks, a stable real estate market and rock-bottom corporate tax rates, and it's about time Americans paid attention, according to a Washington Times op-ed piece.

"Our well-mannered Canadian neighbours have pulled their act together. We could learn a lot from them," writes Jim Bacon in an article that compares Canada to a quiet, orderly neighbour and Mexico to a bachelor pad with "drunken parties" and the "occasional gunshot eruptions."

Canada's good behaviour has kept it off America's radar until now, said Bacon, who hails from Richmond, Va., and has never been to Canada.

"You all behave yourselves, you are well-mannered and you don't create a lot of problems for us," he said.

But it's that good behaviour chronicled by the International Monetary Fund and international media that inspired Bacon to pen the piece.

"It smacked me with a two-by-four," he said in an interview with Postmedia News. "Everywhere else was showing deteriorating financial conditions and Canada was looking pretty good by comparison."

Bacon credits Canada's low corporate tax rate, strict fiscal discipline in the 1990s, housing policies and stringent bank system for the country's economic pre-eminence.

Bacon said he doesn't expect his op-ed piece to inspire U.S. President Barack Obama to make an impromptu trip to seek northern wisdom, but that it could channel the attention of the business community.

"Talented Canadians have long regarded the United States as the land of opportunity. It may not be long before Americans see our northern neighbour as the land of the future," he writes.