November 4, 2010
The Canadian Minister, Tony Clement, with responsibility for foreign Investment review has acted wisely to block the bid of BHP Billiton, an Australian controlled mining company from taking over the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan in a hostile takeover bid that would have transferred the share ownership and control outside of Canada and North America.This action which gives the company thirty days to revise its proposal and submit a new one for consideration will be very popular in the province of Saskatchewan where the resource is based and where the vast majority of the citizens favour rejecting the bid.
Foreign investment in Canada's precious storehouse of key natural resources is bound up with the country's history as a staple producing country that grew out its colonial history to be a significant middle power on the world stage in the twentieth and twenty first century. Canadian resources are a matter of pride to Canadians and it does not take much to arouse populist sentiment about who is to control and husband them. As the free trade and laissez- faire approach of the past decades has faltered it is not surprising to see these nationalist sentiments become more popular. The position of the Saskatchewan government in opposing the deal had the backing of its sister prairie provinces Manitoba and Alberta and the Government of Quebec which has its own strong tradition of national pride with respect to Provincial resources. Canada still seeks to partner with other countries in terms of trade and free flows of goods and services but like Europe, the U.S., Latin America and Asia there will be from time to time expressions of nationalist interest with respect to certain investments and resources. The fact that the Federal government is also a minority government who feared losing many of the 13 federal parliamentary seats it holds in Saskatchewan if it approved the deal undoubtedly also played a role in the decision
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