Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for Winnipeg Centre on his speech and thank him for his kind words about Yves Michaud. Mr. Michaud deserves to be praised because, in view of his age and his career, he could very well be enjoying a peaceful retirement and thinking only of his family and of himself.
However, he prefers, since he does it so well, to take the side of the small shareholders, the small investors, and vigorously defend the often difficult cause of these people with those who we might call “those financial monsters”, the banks and the Canadian financial system, with increasing success. To my way of thinking, it is very encouraging to see how the challenge Mr. Michaud set for himself is evolving and to see his success.
It is a bit like the successes, in educational terms, the sovereignists have enjoyed in Quebec since the 1960s by explaining to the public the merits of the sovereignist proposal. This is what Mr. Michaud is doing with respect to the banks by racking up successes and a better understanding over the weeks, months and years.
I think this, from the member for Winnipeg Centre, is very flattering for Mr. Michaud, who certainly deserves it.
I would like to ask my colleague from Manitoba how he would react if one of the major Canadian banks were located primarily in Manitoba and doing a growing business, as is the case of the National Bank in Quebec, and he learned, as we Quebecers did, that the Minister of Finance has a particular plan in mind for Quebec's National Bank, the bank for small and medium business, by giving it distinct society status in the present instance, by opening the door and pulling out all the stops to enable any foreign company to acquire 65% of the shares of Quebec's National Bank, instead of limiting foreign ownership of it to 20%.
How would my dear colleague react if this were a Manitoba bank?