Yes, that was also part of it. There was a period of time when the Canadian banks wanted to merge to form even bigger banks and reduce competition further. The Liberal government during the 1990s and early 2000s prevented two mergers that would have seen 4 of the top 5 banks merged into 2 companies. Then they went a step further and said they would not approve any mergers until a proper framework was in place for proving that a given merger would not a) unnecessarily concentrate economic power, b) reduce competition, and c) practically limit the government's ability to regulate the new entity.

The Finance Minister at the time, Paul Martin, was the same man who brought Canada's spiralling deficit under control during the 1990s by helping to break a promise to cut a federal sales tax and cutting social program spending. He was a big factor in getting the Liberal party into majority governments between 1993 and 2003 even though he pretty much hated the Prime Minister of the time. Ironically enough, when the Prime Minister Jean Chretien decided to give up the reigns of power to Paul Martin, Canadians were pissed at the Liberals for a corruption scandal that saw tax payer money funnelled to various businesses in Quebec to promote the concept of a united Canada. Remember that in 1995, Quebec was 1% of the popular vote away from being in favour of separating from Canada; so close of a call that France had lined up in support for recognizing Quebec as a country while the Clinton administration lined up against it. Anyways, Paul Martin was popular enough that he won the election in 2003 but with a minority government, which in a parliamentary system means that the opposing parties can essentially gang up on the ruling party and force another election.

This happened in early 2006, when Canadians had a chance to hear the details of how tens of millions of dollars were spent on putting Canadian flags on things like the F1 race in Montreal. They decided to vote in the Conservatives of Stephen Harper, but with a minority government, and we've been ruled by them ever since. I brought up all of these details because funny enough, one of the things the Conservatives wanted to do was push through the same financial deregulation reform that had happened south of our border. Unfortunately, having a minority government they could not do that. The Canadian banks were pushing the government to allow them more freedom and the government was simply waiting for a chance, one that they did not get because even after calling another election prematurely when they thought they had a chance to win big time, they got another minority mandate from the people.

So you could say that Canadians were a bit lucky. A two-bit scandal involving tens of millions of dollars of tax payer money spent to pay for propaganda in the 1990s to help avoid the fracture of our country had the indirect effect of ensuring that our legislation could not "catch up" to the rest of the westernized world. And all the while Stephen Harper has been essentially counting his blessings because he knew that his government would have pushed through the banking deregulation reforms in 2006. That's why it makes me laugh when he goes on CNN or to Wall Street to boast about our banks. He wanted to change the rules he's now praising.