Why www.cn ".ca" and ownership

CN paints their web site on equipment as: www .cn “.ca” not “.com” Is this a Canada thing? Shouldn’t they be using the proper term if they want to be a major player in the US. Must be a lot of people looking for them on the web and not finding their site.

Don't give them any ideas. The "ca" is the last vestige of the former 'Canadian National Railways', being a Canadian entity.

Clique of One.
A Canadian in the Signal Department of the Canadian National Railways.

As long as CN's head office remains in Montreal, CN is a CANADIAN company!

CN was a Canadian government owned railway until it privatised. Its mostly American owned, but still based in Montreal. CN still stands for Canadian National. Thus the ".ca".

That office in Montreal is now just a figure of speech. Most likely a post office box or an empty office. Montreal is listed as the head office to pacify Quebec. Overall command is either from Chicago or Homewood.


Clique of One.
A Canadian in the Signal Department of the Canadian National Railways.

Clique of One wrote:That office in Montreal is now just a figure of speech. Most likely a post office box or an empty office. Montreal is listed as the head office to pacify Quebec. Overall command is either from Chicago or Homewood.


Clique of One.
A Canadian in the Signal Department of the Canadian National Railways.

That's no doubt the primary reason they're so......dysfunctional?!

The leadership of CN is what makes them dysfunctional. Crews and equipment are pushed to the max without appropriate downtime. The emphasis is on making a profit for the shareholders and E. Hunter Harrison. Its okay to wreck things (and people) as long as you still make record profits. Its said that the only thing CN hates worse than its customers are its employees.

2spot wrote:........ Its mostly American owned, but still based in Montreal........

Close but CN is still approximately 54% Canadian owned. Foreign ownership is 45% US and the rest listed as "other"

It may be 54% CDN owned, but there's a bunch of Americans now calling ALL the shots. You won't find anyone in the boardroom who knows how to pronounce "Heron" correctly, or who knows from fried baloney in his yellow pea soup. The only Canadian practice which has followed through from the final days before privatization is the way they hold people's jobs over their heads, unless they move to or travel to wherever they're needed.

To be perfectly honest, I'm still TOTALLY PISSED with Ottawa that CN isn't a Crown Corporation any longer. It was formed to serve the people inexpensively. American business practices don't even remotely relate to holding together a large country with a spread-out population. This folly of selling off Canadian National was anything but in the best interest of the Canadian people.

CRIPES!

The largest single shareholder in CN is now Bill Gates of Microsoft fame. He owns 30.91 million shares through his Cascade Investments LLC, thats a 5.8% stake worth $1.63 Billion. Also he & his wife have another 4.42 million shares in a charitable trust. So together they control 6.6% of all shares in CN.

The head office of CN is in Montreal because it is required under the Act of Parliament that privitized CN.

When all is said CN is largely operated by former IC management. Control is not from Canada. As I understand it its mostly from Illinois. Big deal if its CN.ca, it implies a Canadian company. CN really isnt.

Well, CN operates alot of trackage and handles alot of freight in the US. Because of that they should be considered a multi-national that is headquartered in Canada and run from the US. I don't think it really matters... so long as they run a few in good lighting out a Newtonville.

When all is said CN is largely operated by former IC management. Control is not from Canada. As I understand it its mostly from Illinois.

...Like those SD70M-2's that were built to NS specs! The cab-mounted headlights and lack of teardrop windows elicited complaints from both railfans and crews almost before the units were delivered. They're hardly adapted to the conditions faced on many of CN's lines.

Excellent example, Trainiac. Another is that E.Hunter Harrison was the president of the Illinois Central Gulf from 1993 until CN bought ICG in 1998. For the record, IC became ICG after buying GM&O in 1973. CN has become IC (without the name) after buying IC. IC management and corporate HQ (except for the post office box in Quebec) runs CN now. In fact the corporate edict that the company only refers to itself by its acronym CN and not Canadian National occurred after E Hunter Harrison became president and CEO.