Happy Canada Day (for Traders)

On Canada Day, citizens should be grateful for a healthy global trade surplus that Statistics Canada says was some C$65 billion in 2005.

Compared with China's surplus of US$101 billion, and when contrasted against the U.S. deficit of US$792 billion in 2005, Canada's trade picture may resemble the Goldilock's economy: not too hot, not too cold - just right.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development agrees that Canada's performance has been great, but that the Canadian government needs to spur productivity and find the right policies to deal with an aging population.

In particular, kudos to Alberta which finished 2005 with a record Cdn$8.7-billion surplus thanks to soaring oil and natural gas prices.

What happens why the cyclical resource sectors turns downward? We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

For now Canadians should be happy and celebrate Canada Day with a smile.

Cheers!