Corporate Governance for the Long Run

In "Corporate Governance for the Long Run: Canada's Distinctive Regime", Frederic Brassard analyses whether the corporate governance reform initiatives put forward by the Canadian securities regulators in the wake of the adoption in the United States of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related U.S. stock exchanges’ corporate governance rules represented an adequate response tailored to the needs of Canadians. Frederic Brassard concludes in favor of the adoption of the Canadian regulatory measures having been implemented on the basis that these measures managed to constrain managerial discretion while ensuring that an adequate balance be maintained between the rights of minority shareholders and those of controlling shareholders, a group of stakeholders particularly important under Canada’s existing corporate governance regime. By achieving such an adequate balance, Canadian securities regulators have not only improved the transparency of public corporations’ disclosure and the rigor with which the board of directors of these corporations now need to carry out their duties, but they have also supported the growth potential and the competitiveness of the Canadian economy.