Potash and PR

I'll preface this blog post with the statement that I know don't claim to be an expert on economics or business and I know even less about the potash industry. With that said, I think the Canadian government's prevention of the foreign takeover of Potash Corp. Of Saskatchewan Inc. provides some interesting public relations issues for the government.

Minister of Industry Tony Clement's communications team has a few questions to answer to stakeholders both nationally and internationally. While many key stakeholders in the issue, including the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, will be happy with the decision. Other stakeholders are likely to be confused or troubled by the decision. They will be looking for answers.

Foreign resource-extraction business will be interested to know if this is the beginning of a new Canadian economic nationalism and how their Canadian investments may or may not be effected. Potential foreign investors will also be interested to know if Canada is still “open for business” when it comes to investment in resource-extraction or if this is the beginning of a Canadian version of “Buy American”. The government must outline clear key messages to these stakeholders to clarify how this decision effects or doesn't effect the investment policy arena.

Canadian corporations will also be interested in knowing if the Canadian government will now be interested in protecting more corporations in the future. Will the government protect an oil company or forestry corporation from hostile, foreign takeover? How will the government judge corporations' value in terms of national interest. This move opens up a huge can of worms that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.

The minister's communications department will likely be working in overdrive in the next few days to make sure that the government's key messages are delivered quickly and clearly to these stakeholders.