I say we invade and steal their brains…

because they seem to have understood cause and effect a bit better than the “deregulate!” clowns:

TORONTO – High banking standards have kept Canada’s financial institutions afloat and out of the kind of trouble that has sunk many of their international peers, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Wednesday.

Flaherty, who will meet Friday in Washington with finance ministers from industrial countries to co-ordinate efforts to deal with the global economic crisis, said Canadian banks have been bolstered by strict government monitoring of their capital.

“We’ve had a couple of financial institutions in Canada that ran the risk of falling outside the capitalization requirements,” he said during a news conference on Wednesday.

“We required them… to maintain the appropriate capital requirements and raise capital as necessary, which was done months ago.”

He declined to say which banks were involved in shoring up capital to meet the government’s standards. However, CIBC (TSX:CM) announced plans last January to raise $2.75 billion by selling its stock at a sharp discount.

Flaherty added that the government is prepared to do “whatever we have to do” to protect Canada’s financial system, though he declined to outline any plans.

“I’m not going to talk about what they might be,” he responded when pressed for more detail.

CANOE Money – News: Canada’s banking system kept high and dry by strict regulation: Flaherty.