Veteran Nova Scotia MP Bill Casey pulled two exhausted canoers from the waters of the Northumberland Strait on Saturday, but credits a neighbour for the teens' survival.

"I really believe if he hadn't have had the binoculars on [him] and had the good sense to call for help, they wouldn't have made it," Casey told CBC's Maritime Noon on Thursday. "I don't think they would have made it."

Casey was at his cottage in Tidnish, N.S., this weekend when neighbour Chris Davis spotted two young men in the water. Casey and another neighbour grabbed their boats and went out into the water to rescue the pair.

Strong winds, high waves

Casey said the teens were in a canoe that seems to have been pushed farther and farther offshore by strong winds and high waves.

Those waves prevented Casey from seeing the two in the water when he headed for the canoe to lend a hand. It's only when he got close that he saw the boat was abandoned and swamped.

"I didn't see them. They were really close but I didn't see them because of the waves," he said. "They weren't waving or anything. They were just in the water and low in the water."

The 71-year-old Liberal MP for Cumberland-Colchester pulled the two into his boat and took them to shore where first responders were waiting.

An hour in the water

"They just got into the boat and they just laid on the floor of the boat and couldn't tell me their names. Couldn't tell me where they were from. They couldn't tell me where they were going, couldn't do anything," Casey said.

The teens had taken off all their clothes to try to swim and stay afloat.

Casey estimates they were in the water for about an hour before being spotted.

By the time they got to shore, Casey said the young men were so exhausted they couldn't walk.

Community effort

Casey said the community effort paid off although there are lessons to be learned from the mishap.

"They didn't have life jackets. They didn't have an anchor in the boat and really that canoe was out too far for the weather for sure.

"The other lesson I think ... is that if you do see something and somebody in trouble don't hesitate to call for help because if Mr. Davis hadn't have called for help those young fellows wouldn't have made it, I don't think."

Casey has heard from the mother of one of the teens who told him her son was sore and tired but otherwise fine.