Who Owns Canadian Companies? Not Canadians

Renee Sylvestre-Williams

Foreign ownership of Canadian companies is a tricky thing. Nationalist federal governments made sure that in certain strategic sectors, like transportation and mining, foreign ownership would be regulated, and sometimes limited. And although foreign ownership of Canadian companies vary, restrictions have been loosened of late, particularly in the telecom industry.

Today, once proudly Canadian companies have been bought by foreign entities and multinationals - though this is not to say they've lost their unique Canadian-ness. Marketing executives are smart enough to know that you can take the company out of Canada, but you can't take the Canada out of some companies - especially these very iconic ones.

CLICK PHOTO FOR A GALLERY OF CANADIAN COMPANIES NOW OWNED BY FOREIGNERS

Formerly Canadian Companies

Hudson's Bay Company

The Bay is the oldest company in Canada and in North America. It was founded in 1670 and was responsible for much of the fur trade. It was sold to minority shareholder Jerry Zucker, a billionaire from South Carolina. He became the first US citizen to lead the company. It was then sold to NRDC Equity Partners a private equity firm from New York. The Hudson's Bay Company's US banner operations include Lord & Taylor, an upscale specialty retailer with 46 stores across nine states. Two new stores are planned for Spring 2012. The company also operates 3 outlet stores, Lordandtaylor.com, and two Lord & Taylor Home stores.

Tim Hortons

This very, very Canadian company wasn't from 1995, when it was bought by Wendy's and 2005, when it was sold the public via an IPO. Still, it remained a Canadian symbol during those ten years.

Canadian National Rail

Despite the name, CN Rail isn't fully Canadian-owned. In fact, Bill Gates owns part of the railway.

Molson

The beer company merged with the American company Coors in 2005 to form the Molson Coors Brewing Company. It hasn't stopped them from making ads like this:

Labatt

Labatt was founded in 1847 in London, Ontario. It was bought by Interbrew, a Belgian brewer. It's now part of Aneser-Busch InBev, a Belgian-Brazilian company.

Eaton's

Eaton's or the T. Eaton Co. Limited was founded by Timothy Eaton in 1869 and was once the biggest retailer in the country. People grew up ordering items from the Eaton's catalogue and it left a mark on the retail space. It was purchased by Sears Canada (part of US retailer Sears) in 1999 and the stores closed in 2002. Eaton's legacy remains with malls around the country carrying the name including the Toronto and Montreal Eaton Centres.

Corel

Founded in Ottawa in 1985, the graphics program company was bought by US firm, Vector Capital.