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Activists advancing: Why boardroom battles are accelerating across Canada. Walied Soliman has never been busier. The chair of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright Canada, whose team specializes in corporate proxy battles and hostile takeovers, has seen his caseload triple compared to last year. Market volatility and economic uncertainty are pushing investors globally to adopt a more aggressively activist mindset, experts say, with Canadian companies positioned as especially attractive targets. "Canada is the most fertile ground for strategic [acquirers] looking to do a hostile bid and for shareholders looking to cause change on a board in the entire Western world," Mr. Soliman said in an interview. There have been 35 proxy contests launched in Canada since the start of July 2022, according to data from Kingsdale Advisors, a Toronto-based consulting firm that works with public companies on issues involving shareholder votes. That is already equivalent to the entire 2022 season, which Kingsdale measures from the start of July each calendar year through the end of the following June. "History tells us that activism booms following periods of uncertainty, and this proxy season is no exception," said Kingsdale chief executive officer lan Robertson. "We expect this uptick in activism to continue for the foreseeable future as activists look to strategically strike before companies have had a chance to recover in the post pandemic period." Aimia Inc. was the latest target with the loyalty-turned-holding company's board of directors only narrowly surviving an ouster attempt from its largest shareholder at its April 18 annual general meeting - but it was far from the first. Parkland Corp., Suncor Energy Inc., First Capital REIT and H&R REIT have all been embroiled in proxy battles of varying types with disgruntled shareholders so far this year. That is by no means a complete list. Glencore's US$22.5-billion bid for Canada's Teck Resources, for example, is not a proxy battle despite being both unsolicited and opposed by the company. Teck shareholders will vote on whether to split the company in two on Wednesday. "This really is the age of shareholder activism," Kai Li, a finance professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business and the Canada Research Chair in Corporate Governance. "Management teams in Canada should not be complacent, because investors are really chasing returns." That is why Mr. Soliman at Norton Rose always advises his clients to "think like an activist" because "you are in a jurisdiction where you can easily be attacked by one, so you need to think like one." Those attacks can stem from a wide range of motivations. In the case of Parkland, for example, activist hedge fund Engine Capital LP has a specific goal: to convince the Calgary-based company to sell off its refinery and fuel-distribution businesses and focus more on its fuel and convenience store retail network. Others, as in the recently resolved cases of Suncor and First Capital, are geared toward broader goals, such as replacing some or all of what activists often see as a complacent or ineffective leadership team. While the goals and attributes of activist investors targeting Canadian companies differ, almost all of them share a common attribute: They come from abroad. Most are American, some are British or European or Middle Eastern, but few are actually from Canada.