Frank at pseudorandom has this to say:
Since Bush took office, the Canadian dollar is up 39.76 percent. When you consider that Canada has a comparable (though much smaller) economy, a comparable standard of living, a border that’s essentially open to most trade, and a higher level of government services, this becomes an amazing statistic. It’s what happens when one government runs budget surpluses year after year, while its neighbor, after briefly running a budget surplus under one president, begins running unprecedented budget deficits under his successor.
Never thought of it that way.