Darn, I read this as a Cracked.com article with the "most preposterous nations on earth"
The linked article: "why canada cooks its books too" from that page was more interesting I found.
http://money.ca.msn.com/investing/ji...entid=23605492
I didn't realize that while the national debt is only $56 Billion (miraculuously about 10% of what it used to be in 1998!!!), Ontario's provincial debt is almost $15 billion and most of the provinces aside from Alberta are doing badly in that department and that is hiding a major weakness in the Canadian economy when you only look at the national debt.