Mr. Speaker, my colleague's question is a very good and broad one, one to which I cannot possibly do justice, except to make a couple of very brief comments.
One thing that has helped to protect Canadians, at least in relative terms, is the stability of our banking system. I will do something that might be described as a mea culpa. The hon. member mentioned I used to be chief economist of the Royal Bank, at which time, a decade ago, we were pushing for a merger. In hindsight, given the chaos around the world today, the government of Jean Chrétien took the right decision in saying no to this merger, ensuring a higher degree of regulation of the Canadian banking system than was the case in the United States and the United Kingdom.
I would not give the current government credit for that stability. It was operating over a longer period of time and also related to the decision by the Liberal government on bank mergers. I believe that was one decision and set of regulations that stood this country in a good position relative to other countries.
I would also commend the work done by the IMF. I think there was a committee chaired jointly by a Canadian and a person from India, which has come forward with various ideas for how there can be a greater degree of international surveillance, co-operation and regulation to help prevent the kinds of economic meltdowns we have seen in recent months.