It’s taken a little bit of reading between the lines but I think I have figured out the government’s intentions with respect to the Investment Canada Act. When Prime Minister Harper said in the Commons the day after the Potash decision was announced that the Act needed to be ‘reviewed’, he was not signaling legislative … Read more
I’ve just been looking at research firm Ipsos Reid’s 2010 Canadian Internet Fact Guide, which I think was released this summer but is based on 2009 data. It’s a useful snapshot of Canadians’ internet behaviours, but a couple of facts jumped out at me (besides the fact that 84% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 have … Read more
One of the consequences of Potash was the government’s decisions to make amendments to the Investment Canada Act. The timing of this decision was curious because while Minister Clement was at pains to point out that the Potash transaction was made within the ‘net benefit’ test of the Act, in Question Period the PM quickly … Read more
This week BHP Billiton ended a disappointing chapter in its history in Canada. A history that, based on my knowledge of the company, will have many more chapters to come. In terminating its effort to acquire The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS), it disclosed a summary of the undertakings it was prepared to offer Industry … Read more
What do Inco Inc., Placer Dome, Noranda Inc. and Alcan all have in common? If you said that they were Canadian resource companies that were bought by foreign investors, you would only be partially right. As Andrea Mandel Campbell describes in her book Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson, every one of these great Canadian icons … Read more
Valeria Maltoni at Conversation Agent reports on another study from SmartBrief on the use being made by business of social media. I haven’t had a chance to look at the study itself, but Ms Maltoni does a quick-and-dirty summary of the study’s eight key themes. One of her conclusions surprises me: Despite their early presence … Read more
