Taking on private equity, preventing American takeovers, and ensuring Canada is ‘Never 51’

A conversation with Jon Shell of Social Capital Partners

Joan Baxter

2025-03-28

(Updated) Private equity firms are suddenly in the news.

As the Halifax Examiner reported here, Canada’s oldest retailer, the iconic Hudson’s Bay Company, recently declared bankruptcy and is now liquidating all but six of its 80 stores across the country.

Like so many other retail outlets before it, The Bay succumbed to the private equity buyout-and-bankrupt scourge. The Bay is owned by NRDC, a large U.S. private equity firm owned by real estate mogul Richard Baker, who has “driven a set of coffin nails into The Bay.”

Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney has also been scrutinized for his private equity background. Before becoming leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and then prime minister, Carney spent nearly five years as chair of a private equity firm – Brookfield Assets Management – and there have been criticisms of the way Brookfield operates, and its use of the tax haven of Bermuda for two of its funds.

Many Canadians who are active on the stock market – including Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre – are invested in Brookfield through exchange-traded funds. That’s how pervasive large private equity firms have become.