Hi, Everybody:

Below is a news item of some interest to all of us, something to read and mull over during the weekend.

Good luck to all.

Cheers,

durban1

Coalition to Take Shareholder Rights Campaign to Annual Meetings

The Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, a shareholder rights group backed by some of the country's biggest money managers, is prepared to take on companies at their annual meetings in the coming year to push for "shareholder democracy" policies such as majority voting that allows individual directors to be voted out.

"Where it's been done, it's worked," said Daniel Chornous, chief investment officer of RBC Global Asset Management and the coalition's new chairman. A pair of coalition members including the CPP Investment Board used the tactic this year, when negotiations failed, to secure a majority voting policy for individual directors of miner European Goldfields. Mr. Chornous and David Denison of CPPIB, who stepped down as chairman at the coalition's annual meeting Wednesday, called on Canadian regulators to do more to ensure companies adopt good governance policies such as splitting the roles of chairman and chief executive, and giving investors a "say on pay."

Despite progress since the coalition was formed in 2003, the organization released a study Wednesday that shows more than 40% of companies in the S&P/TSX Composite Index do not have a majority voting policy that enables shareholders to vote against individual directors. Officials at the governance coalition said scrutiny of dual class shares is also on the agenda for the coming year.

By National Post June 16, 2011