The Bay Street editor assigned a story about the strength of Canada’s financial markets post-GFC. The Alberta-based writer wrote a story about how Canada’s financial markets owe their prominence to the strength of Canada’s natural resources. Bad writer. Good story: Exploiting Canada’s Resources (March 2012, Lexpert).

Featuring Stephen Halperin, partner and member of the Executive Committee and co-chair of the corporate securities group at Goodmans LLP, Matthew Cockburn, co-head of the m&a practice at Torys LLP, Paul Belanger, partner in the Corporate Law and Securities Groups at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, Andrew Fleming, senior partner with Norton Rose Canada LLP, Gordon Chambers, partner with Lawson Lundell LLP in Vancouver, Graham Gow, partner with business law group of McCarthy Tetrault LLP, Edward Waitzer, partner with Stikeman Elliott LLP, and lead of firm’s Corporate Governance Group, Robert Yalden, partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Montreal, Janet Ecker, President, Toronto Financial Services Alliance, and Don Hathaway, CEO (at the time), Global Risk Institute in Financial Services.

Best quotes:

“That’s one thing we can clearly capitalize on: we can sell our wares in terms of expertise in financial services. There is tremendous interest in us; the world wants to know—how did you survive when we didn’t?” Andrew Fleming

“Canadian financial services are not the star attraction. People are looking at Canada for other reasons, and the financial sector has an opportunity to take advantage of that. We have to put the cart and the horse in the right order.” Edward Waitzer

“In a lot of the resource plays in Canada, you’re buying a Canadian business that is incorporated in Canada but its assets have virtually no connection in Canada—they’re all in Africa, China, god knows where else. …Foreign entities do business in Canada to take advantage of our capital market system: the disclosure system, the legal and financial infrastructure that we have, the rule of law that we take for granted.” Stephen Halperin