Jon Shell

Business leaders urge Ottawa to extend employee ownership tax incentive | BetaKit A short-lived tax break that encourages founders to sell to their employees is set to expire this year.

"Employee Ownership Trusts provide a practical alternative that keeps companies rooted here, protects jobs and maintains strategic capacity in the Canadian economy.” 👏👏👏

🖋️ by @alexriehl.com at @betakit.com

#OwnershipMatters #EOTs

🚨New video!🚨

Canada is facing a $2-trillion business handoff. What if employees owned more of it?

#EmployeeOwnership #SmallBusiness #FutureofWork #CdnPoli #CanadaSky #BusinessSuccession #CdnEcon

YouTube video by Social Capital Partners Are foreign takeovers good for Canada's economy?

🚨New video! 🚨

We all want more investment in Canada's economy. But when it comes to foreign investment (FDI), @jonshell.bsky.social says we have to ask: is it investment that builds? Or investment that buys?

Because these are two very different things.

#FDI #cdnpoli #cdnecon #econsky

You can’t be sovereign if you don’t own anything Canada needs an ownership strategy, not just an investment strategy The day before the Canadian federal budget was introduced, a Canadian gold mining company called New Gold announced that it would be...

You know what’s easier than making a generational investment and building a bunch of new things? Not selling the things we already have.

An investment strategy without an ownership strategy from the federal government is not good enough.

@jonshell.bsky.social

www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-ca...

Wealth inequality in Canada is far worse than StatsCan reports Our government’s best available data on Canada’s wealth gap excludes, by design, the wealthiest families in the country. As SCP Director of Policy Dan Skilleter writes, if we didn’t have the Parliamen...

Canada’s wealth gap is way worse than official data show.

The PBO just confirmed the top 1% own nearly 25% of all wealth—which StatsCan missed because it doesn’t even count the richest families in its surveys.

🔗 Read more: socialcapitalpartners.ca/wealth-inequ...

#CdnPoli #BillionaireBlindspot

🚨New video🚨

As Canadians, we like to think we’re strong and free. But, when it comes to the wealth gap, we’re looking more like America Lite—better manners, but almost all the inequality.

#CdnPoli #CanadaSky #Wealth #EconSky

Canada should reject Sunoco’s US$9-billion takeover of Parkland The Parkland sale to Sunoco offers little benefit to Canada while risking jobs, innovation and sovereignty. Ottawa should say no.

The Parkland (🍁) sale to Sunoco (🗽) offers little benefit to Canada while risking jobs, innovation and sovereignty.

Ottawa should say no.

Read Sarah Doyle and @jonshell.bsky.social in Policy Options.

#FDI #OwnershipMatters #AlwaysCanada #Never51

policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/09/suno...

Canada should reject Sunoco’s US$9-billion takeover of Parkland The Parkland sale to Sunoco offers little benefit to Canada while risking jobs, innovation and sovereignty. Ottawa should say no.

Build, baby, build? Or sell, baby, sell?

Sunoco's acquisition of Parkland is a bad deal for Canada, and should be rejected.

policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/09/suno...

Today's meeting with @jonshell.bsky.social , chair of @scpartners.bsky.social , @danskilleter.bsky.social, Gene Chartier, Taylor Seek hon, and Lee Chitiz, all representing Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs), was productive and insightful.
#employeeownershiptrusts

This Fourth of July, the world declares its independence from America | Stephen Marche America is turning away from itself, and the rest of the world must follow

For @guardian I wrote about how the world is separating from America this Independence Day.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/comm...

We can't win this trade war with the US, but we can win the next one.
Appeared on @stephenmarche.bsky.social's new podcast Gloves Off (lnkd.in/gtc3qFRa) to talk about whether free trade with America has really been good for Canada and what a pivot toward a Middle Power Alliance could look like.

How long until the MAGA cover of "Not Like Us" about Elon?

As the federal government sets out to “build, baby, build,” do we want to own or be owned? As our new government pursues growth and a nation-building agenda, we should remember this lesson from history: too often, we build and invest, only to sell off our assets and resources to the highest...

Growth that widens inequality will weaken, not strengthen our economy.

Canada Strong means putting economic sovereignty and broad access to wealth-building at the heart of our agenda.

Read Matthew's piece: socialcapitalpartners.ca/as-the-feder...

#CanadaSky #CdnPoli #AlwaysCanada #Never51

Embows up or elbows up. Asong as something is up

Sunoco's deal to buy Parkland is as clear a decision as the government is going to face. @mendelmatt.bsky.social and I write that it needs to be killed.

No new investment, lost good Canadian jobs and lost energy infrastructure to an American company. All for a small premium.

Embows up = no deal

Mark Carney passed a tough test in Washington. He now faces an even tougher one at home Canada cannot afford to cede further control of its infrastructure to foreign interests.

PM Carney met Trump at the White House last week and passed his first real test.

Now he faces a different kind of test.

Will Canada be willing to go "elbows up" in the Sunoco/ Parkland energy takeover and kill the deal?

@mendelmatt.bsky.social, @jonshell.bsky.social 👇

#Never51 #CanadaSky

As the threat to Canada’s sovereignty intensifies, we need policies that keep Canadian companies owned by Canadians.

Employee-ownership is growing in 🍁 for good reasons:

- more wealth for workers
- more resilient in recessions
- more productive

🔗 goodmenproject.com/featured-con...
#EOT #CdnPoli

Corporate leaders are obsessing over GDP per capita.

But, if you look at just about any number that would meaningfully tell you how well our economy is doing, Canada does better than the U.S.

@mendelmatt.bsky.social @jimstanford.bsky.social #alwayscanada #never51 #gdp #cdnpoli #cdnecon

At PPF growth summit. Starting with a classic orthodox economic speech by a bank economist. Manufacturing isn't important, invest in services, we have educated people. Yawn.

Manifesto for the Rest(o) Middle Powers Unite! It’s time to plan our own Liberation Day

Yesterday, America had their “Liberation Day.” Now it’s time for the rest of us to plan our own.

The world needs a new Alliance, independent of the US or China.

Here's one way to do it. It's wrong and incomplete. But maybe it can help get the ball rolling.

jonshell.medium.com/manifesto-fo...

The bravest person in know, being awesome.

Rich tech leaders are sharing their ideas about how political decisions should be made. Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s master of public policy in digital society, has to wonder: Is a Canadian version of DOGE in our future? thewalrus.ca/are-a-handful-of...

From fighter jets to TikTok, satellites to steel, nothing is off the table when it comes to creative-even-crazy ideas to secure Canada's sovereignty.

Fired up? Focused on the future? Full of ideas?

Read ours: tinyurl.com/ycxkfn82/

Add yours: 👇

#AlwaysCanada #Never51 #CanadaSky #EconSky

Canada didn't "steal" American auto jobs. We didn't even take them nicely.
Some facts about Trumps' latest lie in the trade war:
* As a % of population, Canada has underperformed the US in auto manufacturing jobs since 1992
* Both countries have about the same # of jobs as 1992
#Canadasky #elbowsup

Opinion: How employee ownership can help secure Canadian sovereignty As the threat to Canada’s sovereignty intensifies, we need policies that keep Canadian companies owned by Canadians.

Worker ownership is an effective model for local ownership and democratic control. Rather than having businesses shut down or sold to distant shareholders and corporate entities, they can be transferred to the workers themselves, allowing for jobs and profits to remain in their communities.

I almost never ask for a share, but if you're an employee ownership supporter please share the linked article and let's try and pressure our politicians to act quickly to mobilize these trusts in the fight to protect our sovereignty.
#employeeownership

With an election upcoming, and with both the Conservatives and Liberals laser-focused on Canadian workers, employee ownership should be front and centre. @pierrepoilievremp.bsky.social @mark-carney.bsky.social

Last year the federal government introduced Employee Ownership Trusts in Canada, but with a tentative approach and weighed down with unnecessary red tape. It's an easy fix, though, and we know exactly what to do.

The equivalent in Canada would be around 300 businesses a year that would no longer be available for Americans to buy, with head offices staying in communities across Canada.

How many policies can you name with a similar outcome?

Over 400 businesses, or roughly 10% of all transactions, were sold to Employee Ownership Trusts in the UK last year. That is a huge number. It created about 40,000 new employee-owners and kept those businesses owned domestically, rooted in their local communities.