Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney will travel to China next week to promote the country’s financial industry and help win business for its banks.

Mr. Flaherty will also be joined by the head of the country’s regulator of financial services, Julie Dickson, and financial industry executives, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. Mr. Flaherty will visit Beijing and Shanghai during the six-day trip.

“Most of Canada’s large financial institutions are active in China and they are looking to expand,” Mr. Flaherty said in the statement. “The Canadian financial sector is also eager to partner with Chinese companies in their global transactions.”

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The Canadian dollar is cheap (in PPP terms) versus the U.S. dollar. Canada’s banks are strong and more conservative than ours and its government is conservative and sensible. And unlike the United States, Canada is an energy exporter. In fact, Hydro-Quebec is the world’s largest producer of hydroelectric power.

Here then are three top Canadian stocks you should buy now to maximize your returns in 2009.

Top Canadian Stock #1

In a recent interview posted at Kudlow’s Money Politics, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told readers, “We have, I think, the only banks in the western world where we’re not looking at bailouts… We haven’t got any TARP money… We don’t have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac equivalent mucking around in the system.”

See any difference here from the Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Hank Paulson, Captain Geitner approach?

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) is my number-one Canadian bank stock. Founded in 1832, the Bank of Nova Scotia got off to a rough start. None of the board members really knew anything about banking, and the man chosen to manage the bank swindled it to the tune of C$315,000. Not a small sum in 1844. But Bank of Nova Scotia bounced back.

Today, Bank of Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s “Big 5″ banks. For 2008, Scotia Capital, Bank of Nova Scotia’s investment banking arm, was named Best Investment Bank in Canada and Best Investment Bank globally in the infrastructure sector by Global Finance magazine.

Buy Bank of Nova Scotia below trend.

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