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There is a maxim, first formulated by the English journalist John Rentoul, that the answer to any question posed in a headline (Is China More Democratic Than the West?) is invariably: no. A list of supporting examples (Will Facebook Kill School Reunions? Could Hitler Come to Power Today? Are Militant Atheists Using Chemtrails to Poison the Angels in Heaven?) became a blog — Questions To Which The Answer Is No — which in turn became a book. There’s even a Twitter hashtag: #QTWTAIN.

Thus we pass onto a headline that appeared in the Financial Post to start the week: Is National Securities Regulator in Cards? The online version was a little more grammatical: Will 2015 Finally be the Year of the National Securities Regulator?” But the answer in either case is almost certainly the same. Why, no, actually.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Andrew Coyne: No, 2015 is not the year of the National Securities Regulator. Provincial provincialism won't let it be Back to video

The story did its best to make the matter seem in doubt. Weren’t Ontario and B.C. both founding members of the federal government’s proposed Cooperative Capital Markets Regulatory System — the successor to the ill-fated Canadian Securities Regulatory Authority, which never even got to the proposal stage, the victim of an inclement Supreme Court decision? And didn’t Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and P.E.I. join them last year? And wasn’t there some chance that maybe Nova Scotia and Newfoundland might do the same? And…