RE: On foreign ownership of telecomGood op-ed. I particularly enjoyed the last two paragraphs:
Is the national fabric of Canada going to be ripped apart because some guy from Cairo wants to offer you a deal on an iPhone? If you believe that, I've got a pro hockey team in Phoenix to sell you. Butt he tragedy is that it takes an event like the Orascom controversy to force the issue. It's a half-assed, improvised way of opening a market.
A better idea would be to take a radical approach to policy. Canada needs a national champion or two. It needs a Telefonica or a FranceTélécom. So let Bell merge with Telus, let Shaw merge with Rogers. That would give both companies the bulk to expand abroad. But also open the gates, let the foreigners in, and allow a dozen telecom companies to bloom. The Oligopoly has ruled for long enough.
The Red muses: Funny, I seem to recall that many employed the same rhetoric when arguing that Canada's largest charter banks should be allowed to merge a few years ago. I guess the "too big to fail" argument doesn't apply to telecom companies.