The Canadian government blocked the company BHP-Billiton from acquiring Potash Corp, giving the would-be acquirer 30 days to improve on its offer. Why, after Alcan, Falconbridge, Inco and others would the Canadian government even consider approving this deal; because Canada, it seems, is easily intimidated when it comes to the rough game of international competition. […]

[ … ] Yvan Allaire, chairman of the board of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations (IGPPO) and a professor emeritus at Universite du Quebec a Montreal, estimated that 13 per cent of the 253 companies on the TSX/S&P composite index in 2008 had some form of dual-class voting structure. For the […]

*(The opinions expressed herein are the author’s and not necessarily those of IGOPP or of its board of directors) In April 1990, the Pennsylvania legislature enacted one of the strongest anti-takeover bill passed by any state. The immediate purpose of that bill was to block the Canadian Belzberg family in its attempt to acquire Armstrong World Industries, […]

(The opinions expressed in this text are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Institute or of its board of directors) Alas, the company’s magna cum laude performance as a first rate industrial concern is not matched by its performance in the shareholder business, where it deserves a severe magno cum opprobrio. […]

(This comment reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Institute or of its board of directors) It is curious, even strange, to hear the federal finance minister on May 26th 2010 repeat, like a well-trained parrot, the same lame arguments about why Canada must have a single, national, securities commission. […]

This report examines whether Say on Pay is a useful tool to ensure that executive compensation plans are designed in a way that is consistent with the firm’s best interests. It addresses five related questions: What is Say on Pay? What does Say on Pay imply about governance? What means are available to provide shareholders […]

Dr. Yvan Allaire’s presentation at the World Economic Forum 2010 – Davos summit.

THIS TEXT IS ADAPTED FROM THEIR RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOK BLACK MARKETS AND BUSINESS BLUES. Capitalism, famously wrote Karl Marx, bears the seeds of its own destruction. Yet Marx was blind to capitalism’s ability to renew itself and soar, Phoenix-like. The last time this happened, after its near-death experience in the 1930s, governments had to salvage […]

According to IGOPP, the proposed Business Corporations Act (Bill 63) is a quantum leap in the right direction. It modernize and clarify some dsyfunctionnal aspaects of our business laws and legal system. Furthermore, Bill 63 introduce some useful innovations. Howewer, some modifications to the Bill would improve the chances of Québec to become a destination […]

Act to amend the General and Vocational Colleges Act with respect to Governance. For the purposes of the Parliamentary committee on the governance of the Vocational Colleges and Universities, IGOPP have submitted two memorandum stating that good governance is the best safeguard for the autonomy of the colleges and the universities : the legitimity and […]

Yvan Allaire and Mihaela Firsirotu aren’t the kind of people you would expect to find railing against the dangers of modern capitalism and proposing a major overhaul. Mr. Allaire is an emeritus professor of management and former senior executive of Bombardier Inc., while Ms. Firsirotu is a respected professor of business strategy at Université du […]

This book tells a sad tale. This is the tale of how and why the U.S. financial  system and the American  model of corporations, touted as examples for the rest of the world,  have proven fragile and destructive. It is the tale of how, over the last thirty years, financial markets became populated by funds […]

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s obsession with creating a national securities commission is becoming clearer. On Tuesday evening, he revealed the cost of the new federal infrastructure project he wishes to roll out, which comes to $154 million for 2009-2010 alone (as indicated on page 102 of the budget speech). We understand Mr. Flaherty’s commitment to […]

Admittedly, this is no easy task. The Hockin Report is the third attempt in recent years at selling the idea. Which combination of carrot and stick can sway those provinces that are still reluctant to hand over to a federal or national organization their regulatory and supervisory powers of securities markets? Instead of focusing on […]

The distember of our times and investors’ belated outrage has turned corporate governance into a growth industry. Along with much hand wringing, disconsolate essays on ethics, host of new rules and regulations have come the banal and the trivial, invariably trotting on the allure of a surging. The essays contained in this monograph were written à […]

“History never repeats itself. Mankind always does.” – Voltaire How did this unparalleled financial crisis come about? How can it be explained in simple terms? How can we learn from it and avoid making the same mistakes in future? The problem – the direct cause of the crisis – can be traced to a series […]