their debt problem and he's watched as his former country went deeper into debt. >> the wall street journal had an editorial calling the canadian dollar the peso of the north. that was scary. >> john: because with the debt the canadian dollar was following. >> yes, and moody's put the canadian federal debt on a credit watch. >> john: the problem was that canada's government had a safety net more like a hammock. >> when i was growing up in in canada, people laying off went on-- playing hockey. >> john: played hockey all year. >> yeah. >> john: no work for most of the year. so, in 1995, canadian leaders cut unemployment benefits and other programs and as you see here, canada's debt stopped increasing. and as canada ran budget surpluses, its debt has been going down. >> john: things got better. >> things got better. the economy bloomed in the '90s. think about what government