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Second, with the U.S. market getting crowded, many players will get elbowed out as the low hanging fruit is picked off and head north in search of spoils.

These investors, especially the smaller ones, will be able to take up larger stakes in a Canadian company than they might otherwise be able to in the U.S. thanks to the weaker Canadian dollar, relatively smaller size of Canadian companies, and the increased willingness of institutional investors to work with activists.

But perhaps the most responsibility for attracting the eye of southern activists lies with the Canadian boards themselves, whose passive approach leaves them vulnerable. Hoping it won’t happen to you isn’t a viable defensive strategy.

Too many companies are out of touch with their shareholders – both in terms of who they are and how they think or actually vote — confusing an investor’s fondness of an asset with fondness of that asset’s management.

As a result, they fail to close off avenues for activist attack by taking a good hard look at their board, management and performance, adopting best practices in governance like Say on Pay, “refreshing” the board and the executive team when necessary, and instituting an advance notice by-law to avoid any ambushes.

For activists it’s not just about assessing whether or not they can make money by intervening, it’s if they can win the intervention.

Even if an activist is unsuccessful in achieving the ultimate prize of board seats or enabling their desired transaction, it often wins by influencing the company to go off in a different, more profitable direction.

Canadian companies that aren’t willing to ask tough questions and implement tough fixes could find an American activist there to do it for them.

Wes Hall is CEO and Founder of Kingsdale Shareholder Services.