Friday, September 24, 2010

On competing interests

Murray Mandryk is eager to canonize Brad Wall for offering up a "not yet" to BHP Billiton's takeover bid for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan even as he's set up a corporate-friendly process to tell him what to do. But before we buy Mandryk's claim that Wall's position reflects his first-ever inclination to protect Saskatchewan's interests over those of big business, let's note that there's another obvious explanation which wouldn't reflect so well on Wall.

As I noted from the outset when BHP Billiton's bid was first announced, Wall has already meddled in the potash industry by showering its competitor Mosaic with public money in exchange for a photo-op. And presumably in order to be able to use that "success story" in the 2011 election, Wall will need Mosaic onside. So doesn't it seem at least as likely that Wall's current position merely reflects an entirely predictable choice of crony capitalism over the unfettered free-market version?

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