Madam Speaker, I agree with about 80% of what the member said. It is true that, at the time, the Liberals said no to the mergers and to deregulation, the Conservatives were pushing hard in the other direction. They wanted the mergers to go through. They wanted to deregulate and set the banks free. Now that we know it would have been a very bad policy, the Conservatives are wrapping themselves in the framework of strong regulation, which they had historically opposed. I agree with the member on that. I said as much in my speech.
The one area where I disagree is the notion that the NDP caused the Liberal government of the day to say no to bank mergers. I remind my colleague that the Liberal government of the day was a majority government, so the Liberal government did not need the NDP or any other opposition to say yes or no to bank mergers or anything else.
While I am sure the Liberal government of the day was grateful to the NDP of the day for supporting its position on bank mergers, I do not think it can really be said that it was an NDP initiative.