Mr. Chair, if I may, the recovery in Canada has been driven by a couple of factors.
First off, going into the global recession the Canadian economy had some very strong fundamentals, a very sound banking sector, and budgetary surpluses at the federal level, and most provincial governments had budgetary surpluses as well. That last aspect allowed both the federal government and the provincial governments to respond with a significant stimulus package. It was roughly equivalent to about 4% of GDP over two years, so $60 billion in total. That combined with the fact that the Bank of Canada cut interest rates quite significantly.
Those two, both on the monetary policy side and the fiscal policy side, gave a very significant stimulus. It showed up in terms of domestic demand in Canada, so consumption and business investment have been very strong. We've seen nine consecutive quarters of positive domestic demand, and that's a reflection of both—as I said—the strong fundamentals and also the stimulus that was put in place.