As Canada's Conservative government prepares to present a budget on Jan. 27 that is expected to be full of new spending and tax reductions, it could cull ideas adopted by other countries in the past six months.

So far, Ottawa is promising $64 billion in budget deficits and $7 billion in infrastructure spending.

Governments around the world have been throwing money and ideas around like confetti, all in the hope generating economic activity and staving off the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Here is a smattering of what other countries have done to boost their economies: