Harper Flip Flops on the Economic Crisis and Canadian Banks

Over the past weeks and months, soon-to-be-ex Prime Minister Stephen Harper has stared at his podium, the ground, the table, the air, his waterglass and told Canadians "the banks in Canada are fine. This is not the U.S.A."

But, today, what does the PM tell us?

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said he has plans to help Canada's banking and lending system if the U.S.-led financial meltdown or efforts to counter it spill over heavily into this country.

“We have other plans, other proposals, if we have to help the banking system if there are problems in the rest of the world that affect us,” he told reporters while speaking in French.

“But I think we're in a better position than others. I am optimist, but I think I am also a realist.”

Naturally the Prime Minister thought he could get away with this comment because it was in French. But, the Conservatives went into damage control immediately.

When pressed by reporters for more details, Conservative Party officials later played down Mr. Harper's comments, saying that there is no bailout in the works and clarified that he was referring to the normal conversations about maintaining liquidity in the banking system that take place frequently between Bank of Canada officials and the financial sector.

“What the prime minister was referring to are conversations between Bank of Canada and government officials and our banking sector and foreign financial organizations that happen all the time, as part of ensuring that our financial sector is in sync,” Conservative spokesman Kory Tenecyke said.

“They're really at a technical and official level, at a Bank of Canada level. These kinds of conversations take place all the time.”

Technical level? Try us out Kory. Some of us actually have brains. We might like to hear about this technical stuff. Maybe it's in your platform?