Canada becoming unfriendly to investors

Foreign investors become interested in acquiring a Canadian firm. Provincial government objects for its own political reasons. The provincial government puts pressure on the federal government and the foreign investors are told to take their money elsewhere.

This is what happened with Potash Corp. in Saskatchewan and it looks like it will become a pattern with TMX in Ontario.

For 20 years the federal governments of different parties have worked to create a reputation for Canada as a safe place to invest. It is partly because of this investor friendly political culture that Canada has been able to weather the economic storm better than any other industrial country. We owe much of our current prosperity and relative economic security to the foreign money that has created wealth for Canadians.

A good reputation, as the cliché goes, is hard won and easily lost.

It is not enough for Canada to call itself investor friendly by lowering corporate taxes. Canada needs to be actually open to investment for low taxes to attract investment. The current Conservative government should consider this very carefully before they make a decision on the TMX-LSE merger.