As America's economy struggles, a funny thing happened on the way to the next-door neighbor nation that has up until now always been considered a dogleg off our economy. Canada's economy is soaring.

It's that they did anything particularly unusual. And it's definitely not that they are what economists casually dismiss as "a commodity economy" experiencing a temporary boom.

In reality, Canada has genuinely gone its own way, getting itself out from the shadow of the US economic picture at just the right time. The government of conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has embraced free markets, not just one or two things, but a whole banquet of all the things that make economies grow - smaller government, free trade, one tax cut after another, and energy development and security. Net result? Same as what Chile got when it tried the same kinds of reforms - a booming economy.

IBD wonders what the heck the U.S. would look like if it just followed the tax-cutting, government slashing model that has made even the dullest nation turn into the Canadian puma state. What really would it look like?