Banks are essential institutions for participating in modern life. Without a bank account it is difficult to play any part in our society. Banks therefore, must be truly inclusive institutions. And that means they should be held to a standard of strict viewpoint neutrality, looking after the interests of their clients in a nonpartisan, non-ideological way. So long as a bank’s clients are abiding by the law, banks should be open to all potentially profitable businesses for the good of the bank’s own shareholders and the health of the economy. But over the past decade, maximizing financial returns to shareholders has increasingly taken a back seat to the pursuit of environmental, social, and ideological goals. Along with other fiduciaries like corporations, public pension plans, and university endowment funds, Canadian banks have placed ideological goals like decarbonization, net-zero, and energy transition above the returns for shareholders. Banks should not be ideological actors. To go down that road is to severely damage their institutional legitimacy. And allowing themselves to be pressured into investing or divesting based on political and other influences is, frankly, a betrayal of their responsibility to their shareholders. One of the key differentiators of Canada’s banking model should be autonomy from political and other influence. For this reason, we are calling on BMO to return to viewpoint neutrality in their business practices and put traditional fiduciary duty towards their shareholders first.