Obama Praises Canadian Banking System

He’s coming to visit Ottawa tomorrow (February 19, 2009) but it appears he’s doing his homework first.  Check out this piece , from an interview he did today with Canada’s CBC.

I’ll quote part of it here in case that link disappears.

Obama Praises Canadian Banking System

“One of the things that I think has been striking about Canada is that in the midst of this enormous economic crisis, I think Canada has shown itself to be a pretty good manager of the financial system in the economy in ways that we haven’t always been here in the United States ,” Mr. Obama said during the broadcast interview in advance of his five-hour working visit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa Thursday. “And I think that’s important for us to take note of, that it’s possible for us to have a vibrant banking sector, for example, without taking some of the wild risks that have resulted in so much trouble on Wall Street.”

Remember that Bank of Nova Scotia was just recently declared one of the world’s most stable banks .  And in the latest G7 meeting, Canada was praised, along with Spain’s Santander, as having the best banks in the world - a system that other countries should look up to.

It’s good to finally see some more appreciation for what Canada has to offer.  I often feel that we are in the “blind spot” of the U.S. for no good reason.  We’re far from an uninteresting, vast rural extension of Minnesota or some other simple cultural extension of the U.S.  And when Canada has been appreciated in the past it often seems to be for the ways in which Canada merely “supports” U.S. initiatives, such as Afghanistan, like a friendly silent bystander.  Canada needs to be understood as a player in its own right, on its own terms.  This piece of news finally seems to be in that direction.

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Tagged as: Canadian banks , Obama