Madam Speaker, on the first question relative to the bank merger issue, our party was not in favour of bank mergers. We were in favour at that time of the Minister of Finance negotiating the best deal on behalf of Canadians. He had the opportunity to do that because the banks were willing to commit to 10% reductions in services charges, services to rural communities and branch openings and maintaining jobs with Canadian banks. Unfortunately the Minister of Finance blew that opportunity. He was so focused on the short term politics of the issue that he forgot about the long term interests of Canadians. That is the crux of that issue.
Relative to the crisis the government found itself in this summer on the airline industry and Canadian Airlines, I would suggest to the minister a more forward thinking and visionary approach over the past several years in restructuring the Canadian airlines industry in advance of this kind of crisis would have prevented this evolution of events.