Canadian economy mostly unscathed by global crisis

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TORONTO, Oct 16 (Internet): While the United States reels from the global financial crisis, with credit markets still frozen and stock prices careening from highs to lows, Canada has remained relatively insulated.
Canadian banks have not gone shaky like their American counterparts, economists and other experts said. There is no subprime mortgage or home-foreclosure mess. And while the United States fears a prolonged recession, Canadians have remained relatively sanguine, convinced that they are in a good position to weather the economic tsunami from the south.
"We will be pulled down," said Michael Gregory, chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns, an investment firm. "Not as deep, not as long."
Fears about the global crisis helped Prime Minister Stephen Harper increase his Conservative Party's presence in Parliament in Tuesday's elections, many analysts here believe, though the party still fell short of an absolute majority.