The Canadian government has been working towards strengthening trade relations and safeguard against America’s influence over their domestic markets via economic nationalism. Initially, Canada was worried about foreign investments in particular industries, like the railroads, and required that the majority of directors of any company that received government money could not come from outside the country.
Another approach was to ensure at least some firms in a given sector remained under Canadian control. This was achieved with amendments to the Bank Act that required 75 per cent Canadian ownership in financial services. A third initiative involved the government pre-empting foreign control by way of public ownership, like the nationalized transportation services, Air Canada and Canadian National Railways.
source: The Conversation