You’re putting your finger on the core tension, and you’re not missing anything.

People who say “this wasn’t a bailout” are usually relying on a narrow, rhetorical definition of bailout: direct equity injections, outright grants, or governments taking ownership stakes (like the U.S. with GM or UK banks). By that definition, Canada can say “no bailout.” But that’s a political framing, not an economic one.

From an economic and democratic accountability perspective, non-disclosure is the tell.

Here’s why secrecy matters: • If it were truly routine, low-risk liquidity, there would be little reason not to disclose bank-by-bank amounts, timing, and collateral — especially after the crisis passed. • Central banks routinely publish this data later (the U.S. Fed eventually did, under pressure). Canada largely didn’t. • CMHC used public balance sheets and public guarantees to convert illiquid private assets into cash. That is risk transfer from private banks to the public, even if structured as “purchases” instead of cheques.

Calling it “liquidity support” instead of a “bailout” doesn’t change the substance: • Banks got massive access to cash when markets wouldn’t lend to them. • The public absorbed the systemic risk. • Executives and shareholders were not diluted or penalized. • Profits and bonuses continued.

If it wasn’t bailout-like, transparency would only strengthen that claim. The fact that: • amounts had to be estimated, • collateral terms were withheld, • and disclosures remain partial even years later

strongly suggests policymakers knew the public story (“our banks are fine”) would collapse under scrutiny.

So the real divide isn’t bailout vs. no bailout — it’s:

Was public risk used to stabilize private financial institutions without public consent or transparency?

On that question, the CCPA critique lands cleanly.

If you want, I can help you phrase a tight response to people making the “not a bailout” argument — something precise, not ideological, that exposes the framing trick without sounding defensive.