The election has come and gone, and there were a few shake ups. The Liberals lost seats, the Conservatives and NDP’s gained seats, and we now have a minority government. Records broken for the advance voting, however, the overall voting percentage was just over 65%, which is down slightly from the 2015 election.
When talking about voting, most people will only think of voting in the political elections. What about your company? Each shareholder in a company has voting rights, unless otherwise stated. Those rights, or the removal of voting rights, are specifically set out in the Articles of Incorporation.
Voting shareholders elect the directors of the company and usually don’t have any involvement in the day to day of the corporation. However, as they do elect the directors, their votes can impact the business. If they are not happy with a director, they can choose to not vote for that director. For a small company this could be a moot point, but for larger corporations with multiple voting shareholders, this could be a concern. They could make their voices heard and change up the corporation significantly.
If you hold shares in a large company and get notice of a meeting to vote, will you vote?
Christine Allan, Law Clerk