According to the prime minister Monday in question period, the markets approved of the government’s decision to approve CNOOC’s takeover bid for Nexen Inc. This was his defence against a verbal haranguing from Opposition leader Thomas Mulcair on foreign investment regulations. In short, Mulcair said, there is still not enough clarity.“Parliament enacts legislation and the government executive is responsible for enforcing it and applying it equally to everyone. Last Friday we learned that the prime minister does not think he needs Parliament to change the law,” Mulcair lecture. “In the Nexen case, he said that as long as there are exceptional circumstances, he can continue to approve foreign takeovers even if there is no net benefit to Canada.”
So, he asked, “When did the prime minister decide that he could change the law on his own?”
The government, Prime Minister Harper replied, is “changing its guidelines, not the law itself. We have been very clear on that. We are operating under the law.” Not only that, he said, “we have been very clear that controlling interest takeovers by foreign governments in the oilsands are extremely unlikely to be approved in the future by this government.”
Here, Mulcair demanded more explanation.
“Two years ago, Conservatives agreed with us that those rules needed to be clarified and changed, discussed and enacted in Parliament. They no longer need Parliament. The Prime Minister is going to make them up as he goes along,” Mulcair said. “How are foreign companies supposed to know what those rules are? If it was not fair on Friday, how is it fair today? How do you keep making up those rules as you go along? This is Parliament. We make the rules, you enforce them.”
It was at this point that Harper leaned on the reaction to the deal as a defence.
“I note with some satisfaction the very positive reaction of markets and, of course, the vast majority of Canadians to the announcements that the government made on Friday,” Harper said.
Polls, though, suggest otherwise.
On Friday, iPolitics published the results of an EKOS poll on the Nexen takeover that found similar results as others that had been released in the preceding months. It showed that Canadians disapproved of the takeover – overwhelmingly so.
According to EKOS, only 16 per cent of Canadians either somewhat or strongly agreed with the idea of CNOOC buying Nexen. A full 72 per cent, on the other hand, either strongly or somewhat disagreed with the deal. Disagreement was even high in Alberta, where a full 65 per cent of those polled said they didn’t approve of the takeover. Even more Ontarians (76 per cent) and British Columbians (76 per cent) disapproved.
In October, an Agus Reid poll showed that 58 per cent of Canadians would block the takeover, in contrast to only 12 per cent who would have approved it. That poll showed a similar number Albertans were against the deal (63 per cent). Same went for those people polled from British Columbia, where 69 per cent disapproved and only 7 per cent liked the idea of the takeover.
A month earlier, an Abacus Data poll also showed 69 per cent of Canadians would disapprove of the CNOOC takeover of Nexen Inc. That, it noted at the time, was a 12 per cent increase in disapproval since August. The Abacus poll in September also showed that only 8 per cent of Canadians said they wanted the deal to go through.
This morning, I asked the prime minister’s press secretary director of communications, Andrew MacDougall to explain on what the prime minister was basing his assertion and whether there was any new data that showed the “vast majority” of Canadians approved of the deal. At writing, I had received no response.
UPDATE: 12:23 pm
Not long after this post went live, MacDougall did get back to me. He offered this: “The response the government has received, whether formally or informally, has been supportive.”
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Colin Horgan
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