The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that despite U.S. President Donald Trump's belligerence, the S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 27.5 per cent this year. The Globe's David Berman writes that is 11.5 percentage points ahead of the S&P 500 over the same period and a sure sign of confidence in the home team. Sure, the Canadian benchmark benefited immensely from the gold rally, which pushed up the share price of Agnico Eagle by more than 100 per cent, but the index fired on most cylinders. Banks rallied. So did retailers such as Dollarama and Aritzia, and so did tech companies such as Shopify and Celestica. It has been a tough year. Surprisingly, Canadian stocks sailed through it. The Canadian economy is "proving resilient over all," Tiff Macklem, the Bank of Canada Governor, said last week after holding interest rates steady. The country's labour market says as much. The unemployment rate, at 6.5 per cent in November, has been falling over the past three months. the real shocker is that while the number of unemployed Canadians is down this year, the number of unemployed Americans is up. That may be "one of the biggest economic surprises of the year," according to economists at BMO Nesbitt Burns.