Minority bashing

Within the Globe's discussion of how bank mergers may be affected by the election, one commentator has a rather misplaced view of why mergers haven't yet been dealt with:

Harry Ort, who runs KPMG LLP's financial services practice, said he doesn't read very much in Mr. Martin's comments and that he doesn't expect any major developments until one party is in clear control of the House of Commons. “It's really become a political issue — it's on hold until you get a majority government.”

Let's see just how difficult the issue would have been to deal with in the last Parliament. It seems clear that the opposition was perfectly willing to deal, as all three parties expressed their willingness to support bank mergers under the right conditions.

The only holdup? Well, that was the party whose complaint at that time matched Ort's current claim that the political situation within a minority Parliament made mergers impossible - and who accordingly kicked the can down the road all the way to 2007 rather than brokering a deal among willing parties.

The lack of any movement on bank mergers had nothing to do with any inherent problem in a minority Parliament, and everything to do with the party in charge being unwilling to work with its colleagues. Which means that with another minority Parliament likely in the works, those looking to achieve approval for bank mergers would do much better to question the Libs' track record than to parrot Goodale's excuses.