Mr. Speaker, it was interesting to note the governor of the Bank of Canada said he was opposed to the Tobin tax. He did not think there was anything wrong with the effect that money speculators were having on national and regional economies.
I wonder whether this reflects the real position of the government. Over the last little while I have been asking the government to show some leadership at the G-7 in Halifax in trying to bring about a tax that might dampen speculation and in making some proposals for a new financial world order. It would be a sort of second Bretton Woods that would prevent money speculators from doing this kind of thing to our economy, to our dollar, or to anyone else for that matter.
What is it the governor of the Bank of Canada has in common with the money speculators? I think it is this. We could ask these questions of both of them: Who elected them? Who elected the governor of the Bank of Canada to make the policies he makes? And who elected the money speculators?
It is a democratic question. Who really runs the world, the money speculators and the banks or democratically elected parliaments like this one here?