Canada Loses Another Little Piece of Itself

On Friday, Canada's (and North America's) oldest retailer, Hudson's Bay Co., was sold to South Carolina billionaire Jerry Zucker. Five years ago, George Gillette, a Wisconsin businessman, acquired the Montreal Canadiens. Just last year, Molson Brewery merged with Coors (Coors!). More than ever, especially since even the Chinese communists have embraced capitalism, the world's mantra is "Business is business" and "Money talks," but there's just something sad about a country's symbols emigrating to other lands. Strictly speaking, no one's talking about removing any of these three organizations or businesses from Canada, but if ownership goes, control goes. Perhaps the strongest tie any of these entities has to Canada is tradition, but without local control, there's much less keeping that tradition in place. The feeling of loss and tragedy was by no means as great as it would be for any of these iconic names, but it didn't take much for the Montreal Expos to move south of the border and ultimately set up shop in Washington. Other foreign-owned Canadian brands include Seagram, Tim Hortons, Labatt Breweries, and Laura Secord.

Hudson's Bay Co. calls itself "Canada's merchants," and I guess it still can, because the company is continuing to sell to Canada. But it is no longer of Canada.

Then again, Eric Reguly of The Globe and Mail argues that, without a massive retooling, Hudson's Bay Co. is on its way down the drain anyway and Zucker's wasting his money. I guess that's not the happy ending we all dream about, either.