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Montreal — Quebec’s finance minister says Canadians are “naive” in the way they are letting domestic corporate champions be bought by foreign interests and makes no apologies for intervening in U.S. home improvement chain Lowe’s Cos.’ purchase offer for Rona Inc.

Speaking to the Financial Post in his cramped Montreal campaign headquarters this week, Raymond Bachand said he understood perceptions on Bay Street that his Liberal Party is taking a more interventionist approach toward private enterprise. But he insisted such action by government is warranted in specific cases.

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“Interventionism should be an exception,” Mr. Bachand said as his campaign team worked the phones in an adjacent room. “But it’s an exception when you basically don’t think the markets reflect the values that we want.”

Premier Jean Charest’s Liberals, trying to win a fourth mandate from a deeply volatile electorate, have in the past two weeks vowed to block a formal bid by Lowe’s for local firm Rona with all means necessary. It’s the first time they have taken such a decisive stance on a potential change of control of a Quebec company.