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Andrew Willis

Andrew Willis: Big oil, Alberta, and the new balance of power

Friday, October 26, 2007 | 09:30 AM ET

Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).

Canadian oil and gas executives should spend coming days and weeks looking in the mirror. The industry’s first reaction to the new royalty regime in Alberta is going to be celebration. Oil and gas companies dodged a bullet.

Premier Ed Stelmach could have hammered some of Canada’s most profitable companies with new levies. Most Albertans would have applauded the move.

Instead, the Premier introduced a gentler regime than what experts recommended.

But after decades of being able to call the shots in Alberta, the energy companies are no longer getting their way.

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Andrew Willis: Why there's no TSX-MX merger

Thursday, October 11, 2007 | 05:10 PM ET

Money Talks is a collection of daily columns from The Business Network, which airs weekday mornings on CBC Radio One at 5:45 a.m. ET (6:15 a.m. ET in N.L.).

We all know about what investment bankers like to call social issues.

In takeovers, social issues revolve around who gets to be the new boss, and who gets fired. And these power plays derail a whole lot of mergers.

Which bring us to what’s happening now at Canada’s two major financial markets - the Montreal Exchange or MX and the TSX Group.

They’ve been talking about combining forces for months. But they can’t seem to pull the trigger on a deal....

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