Recession may have touched every part of the global economy, but it apparently has not dented the reserves of banker hubris. There’s still an ample supply of that precious resource among Canadian bank CEOs, although it is not warranted.

Given their firms’ relative resilience amid the financial crisis, Canadian bank CEOs can be forgiven for a little bit of pride. But they should resist the impulse to start believing their own press. The truth is that the Canadian banks have not been quite as superior and self-reliant as they may wish to believe.

It is true that the government hasn’t been forced to take ownership stakes in Canadian banks, as has happened elsewhere. But, as Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney noted in a recent speech, “Public funding [to the sector] has been considerable.”

A recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates support to the financial sector in Canada — guarantees, liquidity provisions and asset purchases — to be 22% of GDP. That puts Canada in the middle of the OECD pack. Certainly, our financial sector has received less support than those in the U.S. or Britain, but more than those in Germany, Japan and numerous other countries. Canadian banks have received their share of public support.

The other myth that Canadian bankers seem intent on perpetuating is that their management skills are clearly superior, as evidenced by the fact that they avoided many of the mistakes that have laid low their foreign counterparts. But is this attributable to superior skill, or is it more likely a combination of luck and regulatory, market and cultural differences?

It’s hard to see why Canadian bankers would be inherently more skilled than bankers in other countries. But, assuming that they are, we should be seeing our top bankers aggressively headhunted by U.S. financial firms. After all, the compensation practices of the Canadian banks are based on the idea that there is a North American labour market for bank CEOs.

But there’s no evidence of this. That suggests that either the North American labour market for bank CEOs doesn’t exist and compensation committees can stop gearing Canadian bank CEO pay to that of U.S. firms; or, the market does exist, but doesn’t believe the Canadian bankers are that much smarter. Either way, a little less boasting, and a lot more humility, is in order.