Canada vs Britian - who is best placed to weather the economic crisis?

Brown has often said that Britain is best placed to weather the global economic crisis.

Here's what the Canadian Finance minister said recently:

Flaherty told CTV that Canada's banking system was stable and that the country had been helped by a decade of running budget surpluses.

"We have lots of room to maneuver at a time of crisis ... so we don't have to create permanent deficits," he said.

"The Americans, the British have a lot of trouble because they've been running deficits and when you hit rough waters like this and you start really spending a lot of money it's going to be hard for them to come out of it," he said.

According the World Economic Forum, Canada has the soundest banking system, whilst the UK is ranked 44th.