Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman, and is now a member of President Barack Obama's advisory team on the economy recently commented on the Canadian financial system.
"Canada is relatively less infected, for reasons that are consistent with the direction in which I think the financial markets and financial institutions should go."
When we first moved to Canada I was surprised by the level of equity required to buy a house. If you had less then 20% equity it is called high ratio and the Canadian lender I was dealing with made it sound like a very negative thing. This, after coming from the U.S. where I had been offered, almost encouraged to take, 103% financing to buy our first home several years prior. At first I couldn't believe how conservative the Canadian lending market was. I see now that this financial conservatism is likely the very thing that will save Canada the worst of the downturn experienced by the rest of the world.