(CanWest News Service distributed the following article by Tim Naumetz on September 20.)
OTTAWA — Transport Minister David Collenette slammed as “obscene” yesterday a Canadian National Railway internal directive ordering employees to drop use of the word Canadian and mention only the corporate brand CN in all internal and external communications.
Collenette said he was unaware of the directive, aired in the Commons by NDP MP Bill Blaikie, but “if that is the case, it is not only totally unacceptable, it is obscene, and I will go directly to the chair and the president of Canadian National Railway.”
The directive released by Blaikie says “everyone should consistently use the name CN in the workplace – whether it’s a voice-mail message, e-mail or written correspondence, or in a telephone conversation,” the directive says.
The newsletter also lists the In and Out of references for the company. CN is in the In category. The Out category includes Canadian National, Canadian National Railway, CN Rail, the CN, C.N., Canadian National Railroad and names including recent CN railway acquisitions in the U.S.
Blaikie said the directive is the latest step in the Americanization of Canadian National Railway since the former crown corporation was privatized by the Chrétien government in 1995.
CN since then has expanded in the U.S., acquiring the Illinois Central Railway and the Wisconsin Central Railway, while 55 per cent of CN’s $6-billion worth of business each year is done either back and forth across the border or within the U.S.
The chairman of the board is David McLean, a prominent Vancouver business executive, but the company president is E. Hunter Harrison of Burr Ridge, Ill.
“It’s another stage in the process of what’s been happening to CN ever since it was privatized, and the merger with Illinois Central,” Blaikie said. “The fact of the matter is Canadian National is progressively less Canadian. It’s own by Americans, primarily, by way of shareholders (and) it’s run by Americans.” Six members of the CN’s board of 15 directors are U.S. executives.
Spokesperson Mark Hallman said the directive was part of a policy instituted earlier this year to ensure that use of the company’s market brand, CN, is consistent.
“Take a look at the CN Tower,” Hallman said. “We didn’t build it as the Canadian National Tower, we built it as the CN Tower.” He dismissed suggestions the move was meant to lower the firm’s Canadian image in the U.S.