Angry in the Great White North

The World Economic Forum says Canada's banks are second to none:

Canada has the world's soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.

But Britain, which once ranked in the top five, has slipped to 44th place behind El Salvador and Peru, after a 50 billion pound ($86.5 billion) pledge this week by the government to bolster bank balance sheets.

The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report based its findings on opinions of executives, and handed banks a score between 1.0 (insolvent and possibly requiring a government bailout) and 7.0 (healthy, with sound balance sheets).

Canadian banks received 6.8, just ahead of Sweden (6.7), Luxembourg (6.7), Australia (6.7) and Denmark (6.7).

The ranking index was released as central banks in Europe, the United States, China, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland slashed interest rates in a bid to end to panic selling on markets and restore trust in the shaken banking system.

This report on banks has come out today, amidst the turmoil in the markets.  That means, for as long as we resist the urge to fix what isn't broken, people will look to Canada as a port in the storm to store their funds.

We have Stephen Harper to thank for that.

On the other hand, if Stephane Dion or Jack Layton start with changing the rules and regulations just to be seen to be doing something...anything...we could be messing up a very good thing.