Canada's ruling Conservatives gain support: poll (Reuters)

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canada's ruling Conservatives have increased their lead over the opposition Liberals as election-style campaigning has picked up since the start of the year, a poll released on Friday said.

The Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper lead the Liberal Party by 37.3 percent to 24.8 percent, about a 2 percentage point gain for the ruling party in the past month and its largest lead since October 2009, according to an Ekos survey for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The support level for the Liberals, led by Michael Ignatieff, represents a drop of about 3 percentage points since mid-January, and is lower than the results in the 2008 federal election, the party's worst-ever showing, the poll said.

Despite the Conservatives' gains, they would not be assured a majority of the seats in the House of Commons if an election were held now. Harper has led minority governments since first coming to power in 2006.

Among the other parties, the left-leaning New Democrats have 14.2 percent support; the Greens, which do not have a seat in the House of Commons, have 10.7 percent; and the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which fields candidates only in the province of Quebec, has 9.9 percent.

Each party has said it does not want an election this year, but nonetheless appear to be girding for a vote in advance of the federal budget, expected in March.

Ekos said its survey of 1,652 Canadians conducted between February 4 and 9 has a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Rob Wilson)

View the original article here

New poll gives Canada's Conservatives strong lead (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada's ruling Conservatives took a strong lead in an opinion poll released on Monday, ahead of a March budget that will be the government's next big test.

The Ipsos Reid survey, summarized on the website of Canada's National Post newspaper, said 39 percent of voters supported the Conservatives, who have only a minority of seats in Parliament and need support of at least one opposition party to stay in power.

The Liberals, the second largest party, had the support of 25 percent of voters.

The previous Ipsos Reid poll last month put support at 34 percent for the Conservatives and 29 percent for the Liberals.

The government's next major test will come after it produces its next budget, probably in late March. If opposition parties combine to vote that down, the government falls and there is a new election.

"We've seen this before," pollster Darrell Bricker told the newspaper. "The more people talk about elections, the more it seems to move in favor of the government."

Ipsos Reid polled 1,001 Canadian voters between February 8 and Feb 10. It considers its results accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 95 percent of the time.

(Reporting by Janet Guttsman)

View the original article here

Canada's ruling Conservatives gain support: poll (Reuters)

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canada's ruling Conservatives have increased their lead over the opposition Liberals as election-style campaigning has picked up since the start of the year, a poll released on Friday said.
The Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper lead the Liberal Party by 37.3 percent to 24.8 percent, about a 2 percentage point gain for the ruling party in the past month and its largest lead since October 2009, according to an Ekos survey for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The support level for the Liberals, led by Michael Ignatieff, represents a drop of about 3 percentage points since mid-January, and is lower than the results in the 2008 federal election, the party's worst-ever showing, the poll said.
Despite the Conservatives' gains, they would not be assured a majority of the seats in the House of Commons if an election were held now. Harper has led minority governments since first coming to power in 2006.
Among the other parties, the left-leaning New Democrats have 14.2 percent support; the Greens, which do not have a seat in the House of Commons, have 10.7 percent; and the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which fields candidates only in the province of Quebec, has 9.9 percent.
Each party has said it does not want an election this year, but nonetheless appear to be girding for a vote in advance of the federal budget, expected in March.
Ekos said its survey of 1,652 Canadians conducted between February 4 and 9 has a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Rob Wilson)
View the original article here

London Bourse, Canada's TMX to merge

LSE's Xavier Rolet is set to become chief executive of the merged group.TMX Group is the operator of Canada's largest stock exchangeCombined group will have dual stock market listing, jointly headquartered in London and TorontoLSE's Xavier Rolet is set to become chief executive of the merged group
(FT) -- Shares in London Stock Exchange surged almost 8 per cent on Wednesday after it agreed an all-share merger with TMX Group, operator of Canada's largest stock exchange, creating a platform with the world's largest number of mining company listings at a time of surging commodity prices.
The deal is the first big strategic move by Xavier Rolet, chief executive who took over from Clara Furse in 2009, to secure the future of the UK bourse.
However, in spite of the share price surge there were signs that some analysts were lukewarm on the deal. Citi described the deal as "defensive" and said it would distract the management from its earlier stated strategy.
"We worry that this deal looks likely to take up management time and energy in the short term. We see this putting the LSE's existing growth strategies on the backburner, which we view as a negative," the bank said in a note.
The combined group, which will have a dual stock market listing and be jointly headquartered in London and Toronto, will be worth just under £5bn ($7.7bn), including debt. It will have a combined 6,700 listings, making it the world's largest exchange by numbers of companies traded.
Mr Rolet is set to become chief executive of the merged group. Wayne Fox, chairman of TMX Group, would become chairman and Thomas Kloet, TMX chief executive, would be president. The chief financial officer of the enlarged group will be Michael Ptasznik, currently CFO of TMX.
We are aiming at nothing less than becoming a true powerhouse in the global exchange business.
--Xavier Rolet
TMX investors are to receive 2.9963 ordinary shares in the enlarged group for each share held in TMX. LSE shareholders will own 55 percent of the enlarged capital and TMX shareholders will take the remaining 45 percent.
LSE shares rose 68p or 7.6 percent to 960p, valuing the share capital at more than £2.5bn. TMX closed at C$40.28, giving Canada's largest exchange a market capitalization of C$3bn.
Based on the closing prices of the exchanges on Tuesday the combined company would have a market capitalization of about £4.2bn ($6.7bn).
The deal, which requires the approval from both provincial and federal Canadian authorities, where there are restrictions on an entity owning more than 10 per cent of an exchange, is expected to be earnings accretive for both LSE and TMX shareholders in the first full year following its completion.
The companies are targeting annual cost savings of £35m ($56.2) by the end of the second year of merger and a revenue boost of £35m in the third year of the combination growing to £100m ($160m) in the fifth year.
Mr Rolet welcomed the agreement with TMX and set out his ambition to become a leading global exchange.
"This new international leader, marrying the right cost structure, financial strength, technological expertise and product portfolio, will be strongly positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities in emerging markets and deliver them to our customers in North America, Europe and beyond."
He added: "We are aiming at nothing less than becoming a true powerhouse in the global exchange business."
Borse Dubai, LSE's largest investor, Italian bank shareholders UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, as well as Qatar Investment Authority, which owns 15 percent of the LSE, favor the deal.
The deal is the latest in the sector which faces the growing threat of competition from alternative trading platforms such as Chi-X Europe and Bats Europe.
SGX, Singapore's exchange, agreed a $7.8bn bid to takeover Australia's ASX in January, to form Asia's fourth-biggest bourse. The deal valued ASX at 25 times its 2009 earnings. LSE trades at about 10 times earnings.
TMX shares have risen strongly on the back of consolidation hopes. The group's subsidiaries include the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Montreal derivatives exchange.
TMX also has a 19.9 percent stake in EDX London, a small derivatives exchange run by the LSE.
TMX markets itself as the world's leading resources market, but the LSE has also capitalized on the commodities boom.
Mining and energy companies account for 34 percent of the companies on LSE's benchmark FTSE 100 index, up from 29 percent three years ago.
TMX's main board and TSX Ventures exchange, which specializes in small-cap listings, have a combined 3,900 listings between them.
© The Financial Times Limited 2011
View the original article here