printThe Canadian government, not the American one, “will ‘resist’ a bank tax, Industry Minister Tony Clement said Tuesday as ministers fanned out across the world to raise opposition to the proposal for avoiding another financial crisis. ‘Canada is, and will remain, opposed to a tax that would penalize financial institutions that remained strong and prosperous while many of the world’s banks failed,’ Clement told a press conference with Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.”
Clement said the bank tax would “encourage risky behavior” if it is used to create a bank bailout fund and “reward bad behavior” of those institutions responsible for the recent financial crisis in the first place.
As well, it would “unduly burden” Canadian banks and put them at a “competitive disadvantage” to other financial institutions.
As the AP reported a while back, “while the U.S. has seen 81 banks fail in 2009 alone, Canada has not experienced the failure of any major financial institution. There has been no crippling mortgage meltdown or banking crisis north of the border, where the financial sector is dominated by five large banks.”
I’ve often contended that if it cut back on its interventionist policies, Canada could become an economic giant. It has natural resources and a highly educated population. And as David Frum (another Canuck) reminds in this excellent piece (via alternativeright.com): Canada has an immigration system that doesn’t tolerate a tsunami of illegal alien illiterates, as does it adhere to a strict point system that benefits the country.
More HERE about the global regulatory regime debated by our oracular governors.
Mr.Frum is right about Canada’s current immigration system, but Canada did flirt with an ‘invite the world’ policy centered on family reunification in the 70’s and 80’s. A flood of uneducated immigrants from Jamaica and Haiti ‘diversified’ Canada’s two largest cities. The effect of this momentary madness will be felt for a long time.