Canadians worried about foreign takeovers, want action indicates poll

Edited by Peter Tremblay

A large majority of Canadians believe the recent flurry of foreign takeovers of Canadian firms is a bad thing for the economy and want the government to intervene, a new poll suggests.

The Canadian Press-Harris-Decima poll was surprising, not in that it found Canadians getting worried about the so-called "hollowing out" of corporate Canada, but that such a large portion of respondents -- 72 per cent, including 66 per cent of Conservative supporters - said they want the government to act.

The poll of 1,000 respondents conducted between Aug. 30 and Sept. 2 came at a time when a series of iconic Canadian firms, including Bell Canada (TSX:BCE), Alcan (TSX:AL), Falconbridge, Inco, Dofasco, and The Hudson's Bay Co. have either been swallowed up or are targets of foreign interests.

The results also reflected fresh concerns arising from the Aug. 27 announcement by Hamilton-based Stelco Inc. (TSX:STE) that it had agreed to a US$1.1-billion offer from United States Steel, leaving the domestic steel industry without a major Canadian player. "My intuition is that it's a bigger issue today than it has been at any time in the past 10 years," said pollster Bruce Anderson. "For people, including Conservative supporters, to be saying in the numbers they are that they'd like to see something to limit this kind of activity is quite significant."

While foreign takeovers, including those of high-profile companies, have happened in the past, 66 per cent of respondents said they believed the activity has been increasing.

And of those, 71 per cent thought the phenomenon was bad for the Canadian economy, as opposed to only nine per cent who saw it as a good thing.

Of those who said they were Conservative supporters, 67 per cent said they viewed foreign takeovers as bad.

The numbers in favour of government intervention were equally strong, with 72 per cent overall and 66 per cent of Conservative supporters, who would be expected to favour letting market forces operate unimpeded.

Only 20 per cent said they preferred that government butt out and let the market function freely.

The survey is considered accurate plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

No major Canadian federal political party has sought to galvanize critical concerns expressed in the Canadian Press-Harris-Decima poll among Canadians about foreign takeovers toward a prospective Canadian federal election. As a result, Canadians do not have a strong political party voice for critically needed action on this issue.

The Canadian Action Party (CAP) led by Connie Fogal, is the only officially registered Canadian Political Party to be officially against the sell-out of Canada to foreign, and largely U.S. Big Business interests. The new Progressive Canadian National Party is also seeking to represent the vital concerns of Canadians toward the defence of Canadians re-affirming control of their own society: LINK.

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