The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. dfrancis@nationalpost.com
No self-respecting nation would allow its stock exchange, the cornerstone of a financial system, to be sold to foreigners. Australia, for instance, rejected a proposed sale of its exchange to Singapore as a “nobrainer.”
And yet, on June 30, the board of directors of the Toronto Stock Exchange will ask its shareholders to bless a sellout to the London Stock Exchange that will, eventually, result in both being sold to even bigger foreign entities. The vote is being staged before regulators and governments have given special permission required to allow the deal to be closed.
There is another competing bid, by Canadian financial players, that won’t need special permission. I don’t want to comment on the merits of that deal, which raises antitrust and other issues.
But the sellout to the British is not in the national interest. It will orphan Canadian entrepreneurs, ideas and corporations.