Mr. Speaker, the hon. member mentioned a number of ways government actions can cripple the activities of Canadian banks. That takes me back to the previous speech from the NDP member who was talking about the Tobin tax and how it would solve the problems of the world because it would get those nasty speculators.
It is true that the government side did vote for that Tobin tax last night. The only reason I can think for doing that is that it is a tax and Liberals like taxes. They voted for it because it is a tax. There simply was not any logical reason to do it.
An NDP speaker earlier was talking about how these dreadful speculators had to be stopped. If there is one way to cripple our Canadian banks it is to introduce a Tobin tax and remove from their possession all the major international transactions and the major corporate business that would be going on. It would all be transferred to different countries.
When I came to Canada 20 years ago, 1979, the Canadian dollar was worth more than 90 cents U.S. Today it is down to about 67 cents U.S. I ask who caused that. Overspending, overtaxing, oversized government caused that. It did more damage than all the speculators we could name.
Can the hon. member think of any case, any example where speculators did more damage than overspending, overtaxing, oversized government?