Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed the comments of my colleague in the NDP.
I have to inform the House that soon after an offer was made by the Royal Bank and the Bank of Montreal I sent out a questionnaire in my riding. The response was four to one in opposition to the merger.
Based on that response I wrote a letter to the Financial Post in which I said the situation reminded me of the Titanic . It was big too at one time but once it hit the iceberg it sank, taking 1,500 people with it. The point I was trying to make was that we were not ready. That is why we have debate in the House, to make sure we are prepared if it ever takes place.
Would the hon. member agree with me that when the recession hit us in the 1930s no Canadian bank ever went bankrupt? That was because we had laws to protect consumers, unlike the United States and now as we see in southeast Asia. If we have no protection for the consumers we will go the same way. However, the way it is we have lots of protection for consumers. I do not think we will be hit or that it will happen the same way it happened in southeast Asia.
Is the protection we have for consumers enough to protect us in case we are hit by an iceberg?