Found by Stan Shatenstein in the Legacy archives.
From 1970 to 2000, Imperial Tobacco Canada was actually owned by a holding company, Imasco, with British American Tobacco a minority shareholder (41.5%) until 2000 when it bought the rest of the company. In 1986, Imasco was attempting to acquire a large financial institution, Genstar, in part to diversify its holdings away from tainted tobacco. The then Minister of State (Finance) took the lead for the Conservative government of the day in monitoring the potential deal (which did eventually go through) because, as she stated in the House of Commons on April 17, 1986, "The House is well aware that regulatory efforts to protect the public interest and preserve financial stability in the financial sector raise complex and challenging issues. These include self-dealing, increased concentration of ownership, links between non-financial and financial companies, reduction of competition and conflict of interest." And, who was that guardian of the public trust, so concerned with conflict of interest and related issues? Yes, none other than Barbara McDougall.
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