Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll share my time with Mr. Hoback.
Particularly as a guest today I would dare not ever politicize the role of the Bank of Canada or of the hiring process to replace the governor. You can both be relieved; I won't go there.
I have a question about the situation in the U.S. It's clear that the U.S. needs to get their fiscal house in order. That's probably the classic understatement of the day today. There's some concern perhaps about the way they're going about that. I'm thinking specifically about sequestration. I was in Washington a couple of weeks ago, and that's all I heard about when I was there. I know you were there recently as well, Mr. Carney.
I'm curious about your thoughts on that. Is sequestration a potential risk factor for Canada and for the Canadian economy in contrast to the U.S. approach to budget cuts, for instance, this automatic meat cleaver approach to the plans and prudent approach of the Canadian government to restrain the cost of government and reduce the size of government?
Could you speak to that?