Canada elected the right leader in Stephen Harper. The man has been fighting high spending and is bringing taxes down.
It doesn’t hurt that Canada does not inhibit its companies from drilling for oil and natural gas ( unlike us ).
Australia is still riding on the coat-tails of conservative John Howard’s legacy and his success, Kevin Rudd has not done much to change Howard’s economic policies (Rudd ran on a cap and trade platform but quickly scrapped it after the costs were considered ). It does not hurt that China and India’s huge appetite for Australia’s commodities continue to grow.
He’s done ok, but he has increased spending far too much for my tastes, and I think he could have avoided going into deficit at all.