Article content

As economic power in Canada continues to shift westward, so too, apparently, are the seats of corporate influence.

Alberta — when compared against much larger Ontario — now has three times as many company headquarters per capita, according to research from the University of Moncton. But the western province now boasts significantly more than its fair share of board directors — the ultimate corporate decision-makers — than anywhere else in the country.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or 'Toronto has less influence now': How Canadian corporate power is making a big shift westward Back to video

We see power shifting to the west, especially to Calgary. Toronto has less influence now

A study by a group of academics at the New Brunswick-based university shows that of the 234 corporate headquarters of companies listed on the S&P/TSX Composite Index that are based in Canada, 82 or 35% are located in Ontario, 79 or 33.9% are in Alberta, followed by Quebec and British Columbia which have 32 (13.7%) and 28 (12%) respectively.

At the same time, the western provincial powerhouse boasts the strongest representation of corporate directors from those same S&P/TSX companies, the research found. “No other Canadian province is over-represented when considering its demographic weight,” it concluded. Only Alberta is.