I’m a bit of a sucker for eloquent [if geeky] old competition law quotes. In that vein, I came across this oldie where the Alberta Supreme Court (in R. v. Clarke, 1907) talks about the importance of competition in a new country. When I reflected a bit on this quote, I realized that Canada had only had competition law for 18 years when this case was decided, in relation to a lumber cartel in Alberta. (Although us Canadians can continue to brag as having competition law for one whole year longer than the U.S.) In any event, great quote I thought and something of the western frontier spirit in it:
“If there is anything important in connection with the affairs of a new country, anything important in connection with the affairs of a business community, it is that men should have the right – and I have no doubt that that was the intention of parliament so far as this section is concerned – that men should have the absolute right, so long as they did not interfere with the rights of the public, to conduct their own business in the manner in which they see fit. If this firm did not desire to make profits in selling lumber to the city of Edmonton or in selling lumber to the city of Calgary, that was a matter of their own concern, and it was not in the interests of the public that the members of this association assumed to bulldoze this particular individual in regard to the manner in which he should conduct his business. Various other instances were brought forward in which practically the same class of thing was done.”
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