“This is a sad day.”

“Yet one more piece of Canada has been sold to the Americans.”

“New owners at the Hudson Bay and it's sad to see.”

“Are there any Canadian companies left?”

“The oldest retailer in North America and now it's owned by Americans.”

There is what the readers think immediately after the announcement of the deal with Lord & Taylor owners to buy The Hudson Bay Company.

It is so silly.

Business interests from the U.S. have owned the company since 2006.

No Canadians wanted to buy the company if you’ll remember. The last Canadian owner was the Thomson Family from 1979 through 1997.

Nobody ever complains when Canadian corporations head south of the border to buy retail operations and banks.

Sad to say, but we aren’t very good at buying and operating retail outlets in the United States. In fact some of our biggest successes had to put their tail between their legs and come home because it wasn’t working. There was Canadian Tire when they purchased the White Stores in Texas and Tip Top Tailors bought Brooks Brothers for about an hour and came home. Peoples Jewelry purchased Zales American’s Diamond Store and that also didn’t work.

The people at NRDC who own Lord & Taylor, and now The Bay, Zellers, Home Outfitters and Fields for a total of 576 stores, are good retailers. There are nine Hudson Bay company stores in the Valley.

Under no circumstances are they looking to change the name of the company. Their entire effort is to make things better for us the customers of the stores. Their primary focus is to make The Bay better.

The change in ownership comes after the death of Jerry Zucker, the American billionaire who bought the company for $1.1 billion, two and a half years ago. NRDC was one of his investors at twenty per cent.

Richard Baker the head of the company and now the Governor of The Hudson Bay Company was quoted as saying, “We’re tremendously honoured to be associated with this Canadian brand. I promise our Canadian customers we will honour the traditions of the company.”