Comment 98014

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted February 27, 2014 at 11:11:49 in reply to Comment 97994

Missisauga's list is impressive in one sense, but it is also a depressing example of the fact that Canada's economy is still based on a colonial model: as far as I can tell all these company are just Canadian head offices of multinationals (mostly American) who like being in Mississauga because it is close to the airport and cheaper than downtown Toronto.

These "head offices" are not really head offices at all, simply the Canadian administrative centres for companies whose real head offices are in other countries. This means all the real decisions are made elsewhere (including where the Canadian head office is) and most of the high value added R&D is done in the home country.

As in all colonial systems, the role of the colony is to make profits for the home country. When the colony stops being profitable (or the real home operations are in danger) the colonizer has no qualms about reducing its activity or pulling out. This makes Mississauga (and Canada) pretty vulnerable to decisions made elsewhere. When Stelco's Hamilton operation was almost the entire company, shutting down meant shutting down the company and was a major decision. When US Steel's Hamilton operation is one of dozens, and the company prioritizes its American operations it is no big deal to shut it down.

I hope that Hamilton will slowly grow its own true head offices, and aspire to be more than the temporary home to the administrative offices of multinational corporations.

People like to portray France as a non-entrepreneurial country where no one wants to invest, but the Paris region alone has the head offices of an extremely diverse group of 38 FRENCH Fortune 500 companies: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/g...

How many CANADIAN Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the whole of Canada? Only 11. Of those, 8 are based in Toronto, 2 in Calgary and 1 in Montreal (and 6 are banks or insurance companies). None are based in Mississauga. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/g...

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2014-02-27 11:26:40

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