Contrary to rumours, populism doesn’t play well in commie pinko Canada. The governing Conservatives favour the capitalist free market system. In the Liberal Party of Canada, the Official Opposition, there is a wide divergence of views. There is a right wing and a left wing in the party that believes in nothing other than opinion polls that they have a natural right to govern the country.
While many on the left are socially liberal, the Liberal Party is essentially in favour of free markets and fiscally conservative. Under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, the party that trumped gay marriage and universal daycare made massive spending cuts in the 1990s in an attempt to reduce the debt left by the previous Progressive Conservative government. Banks were happy.
The only real anti-capitalist party is the socialist NDP. The Dippers are always railing against big banks, big insurance, big pharma and big box stores. The only big things that they champion are big labour and of course, big government. But this is the party that celebrates when their standing in the polls starts to approach 20 per cent. Presumably they are not insistent on a big NDP. The views of the major Canadian political parties are such that it is doubtful that many points can be made with Canadians by attacking our financial system.
In an attempt to curry favour with the voters after Scott Brown won Uncle Teddy’s Senate seat, Barack Obama ratcheted up his attacks and declared war upon capitalism and American banks. And to think that it used to be difficult to picture Barry as a “war president”. In recent weeks, Obama has proposed a special tax on banks as well as limiting the size and the type of business that these financial institutions can engage in. He also wants to limit the amount of money that can be paid as executive compensation. It doesn’t seem to matter that many of the institutions that took government money paid it back, with interest.
Canada has no plans to follow suit. Last week, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that banks doing business in Canada will not face any new taxes, nor will executive pay be regulated. The reason, described by Flaherty as simple, is that Canadian banks are in good shape and the taxpayer did not have to bail any of them out during the current economic downturn.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper put it stronger. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Harper described what Barack Obama is doing to the banks as “excessive” and “arbitrary” and said these sorts of things will not find their way into Canada. The Prime Minister described Canada’s financial sector to the world as strong and already well regulated. The Canadian government has also rejected U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s proposal to impose a global tax on financial transactions.
What Barack Obama is doing to banks that operate in the United States stands to benefit Canada. According to the Globe and Mail, many financial institutions are seriously considering moving their businesses or at least some personnel from New York City to Toronto. Even before the Bamster began his attack on the banks, New York had already imposed higher taxes on the wealthy that caused many of its richer inhabitants to flee. U.S. banks wanting to expand may find Canada to be a more suitable place for growth. And foreign banks that want to expand to other countries will be more inclined to come to Canada where the financial system is more stable. Individual American bankers who can make as much money as Obama lets them make, may find Canada to be more attractive.
Canada has what financial institutions need but don’t have in the United States – stability.
So far Canada has lucked out with what has happened under the Obama-Reid-Pelosi regime. Although a lot of Canadians would love it if the U.S. healthcare system copied their own, the derailment of Obamacare will also benefit Canada. We have a doctor shortage that would worsen if doctors were lured south of the border to treat the increase in the number of people who would seek medical care if they didn’t have to pay for it themselves. And the only way the Canadian healthcare system can be fixed is if we move towards more private sector involvement. This is hard enough to accomplish without the United States being held up as the shining example of state run health care.
Barack Hussein Obama – he might just be the greatest president of the United States that Canada ever had. Mmm mmm mmm!
