Melanie L. Aitken, Commissioner of Competition Bureau

What do Air Canada, the Toronto Real Estate Board, Visa and MasterCard have in common? They all faced stiff criticism from Melanie L. Aitken, Canada’s Competition Commissioner. Aitken sued the country’s largest real estate board, saying it was preventing discount brokers from using MLS.ca. And Aitken kept the pressure on, even after the Toronto Real Estate Board attempted to appease the Competition Bureau.

Aitken’s dispute with Air Canada came in response to a plan by the airline to team up with United Continental on certain routes. Aitken said the plan would monopolize air traffic to major destinations and drive up costs for consumers. As for Visa and MasterCard, Aitken took them to task for comments that they were pro- consumer. She responded by calling the comments “self-serving” and “neither fair nor accurate.”

Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEOs, Research in Motion

It’s been a year to forget for Research in Motion. The trouble began in April when the company lowered its first-quarter outlook. Analysts and investors proceeded to jump ship, with the stock dropping more than 75 percent after the announcement and a number of one-time bullish analysts cutting their ratings and estimates.

But that was just the beginning. RIM’s much-maligned PlayBook tablet was released to negative reviews and posted lacklustre sales. Then the company announced layoffs at the same time a scathing anonymous letter surfaced questioning RIM’s co-CEO structure. By the fall the company was forced to defend its celebrated BlackBerry Messenger service after a three-day outage that affected millions of its users around the world. Mixed throughout were a number of announcements about product delays and criticisms that RIM was losing ground to rivals such as Apple and Google.

Lingering behind those problems is growing unrest among its once loyal shareholders, symbolized by a call from Jaguar Financial to replace co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. All told, the company lost around $20 billion in market value this year.

Carson Block, Muddy Waters

Had you ever heard of reverse takeovers before 2011?

If not, you weren’t alone. But that all changed after short-seller Carson Block released a report in June that called Sino-Forest -- an analyst darling and the largest forestry company on the Toronto Stock Exchange at the time – a “ponzi scheme.” Block alleged the company overstated its revenues and questioned its accounting. At the time of the report all nine analysts that covered the company had a ‘buy’ rating or the equivalent on the stock.

Shares in Sino-Forest, which at one point had a market capitalization of $6 billion, quickly plunged. The analysts -- once quick to call the company a great play on the Chinese growth story -- soon went quiet. Then regulators entered the fray, with the Ontario Securities Commission announcing its own investigation. The RCMP soon followed suit. In the midst of the allegations, Sino-Forest shares were halted and CEO Allen Chan stepped down.  

Block’s report highlighted many of the problems facing investors when they invest in Chinese companies, including reverse takeovers, a tactic where a private company buys a publicly listed shell company to avoid the costly and detailed process of going public. Sino-Forest itself went public through a reverse takeover in 1994. The OSC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have both announced changes to protect investors in foreign firms listed on North American exchanges.

Luc Bertrand, Vice-Chairman, National Bank Financial Group and Spokesperson, Maple Group Acquisition Corp.

Luc Bertrand, Vice-Chairman at National Bank and Spokesperson for Maple Group, helped make sure one of Canada’s prized financial assets -- its national stock exchange -- stayed in Canadian hands. When the London Stock Exchange announced its takeover offer for the TMX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock exchange, many investors wondered about the potential problems of a foreign-owned stock exchange.

With TMX now in play, a number of banks and pension funds came together to form Maple Group and outbid LSE. Bertrand, the former CEO of the Montreal Exchange, became the face of that bid. He attempted to quell concerns that by rolling together Alpha Group, an alternative trading platform owned by the banks, and the CDS clearing house, the financial industry would have a near monopoly on stock trading in Canada.

Bertrand also had to win over the TMX Group board, as they were concerned about the leveraged nature of the Maple Group bid. In all of that, Bertrand has been successful. His last order of business remains winning over politicians and regulators.

Mark Carney, Governor, Bank of Canada

This was the year Mark Carney stepped onto the global stage.

After helping lead the Canadian economy through the financial crisis and subsequent debt crisis gripping Europe, Carney was rewarded with a position as the head of the Financial Stability Board (FSB). The FSB is in charge of coordinating economic policy among the G-20 countries.

While Carney has been celebrated for his steering of Canadian monetary policy, keeping everyone happy on a global scale is likely to be much more difficult. His first order of business is to ensure the world’s major banks adhere to stricter capital requirements -- something they’ve already criticized. On the domestic front he has to find a way to maintain loose monetary policy, while encouraging Canadian households to tackle their record debt levels.

Pat Daniel, CEO, Enbridge

Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel had quite the year in 2010, as he was roundly celebrated for his handling of a pipeline leak in Michigan -- in stark contrast to his peers at BP who suffered stiff criticism for their handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2011, Daniel continued the positive momentum by touting the Northern Gateway pipeline that would ship Canadian crude from Alberta to ports on the west coast, and then on to consumers in Asia. The project offers a lifeline to oil producers wholly dependent on consumers and politicians in the U.S. for sales. And the in the wake of a decision by the U.S. State Department on TransCanada’s controversial Keystone XL pipeline, Northern Gateway is looking even more enticing.  

Better still for Daniel, his company help close the growing price gap between benchmark oil prices in the U.S. compared to Europe. In November Enbridge announced that it would reverse oil flows in the recently purchased Seaway pipeline and send crude from Oklahoma to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The spread between WTI and Brent, which peaked at $27, quickly narrowed.

Russ Girling, CEO, TransCanada

TransCanada CEO Russ Girling received a harsh lesson in U.S. politics during 2011. Girling spent the year pushing for approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would ship crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast in Texas.

Everything was looking good after the State Department released its final environmental impact statement at the end of the summer, which many commentators viewed as favourable of the pipeline. But that soon changed.  

Environmental groups were the most vocal in their calls to halt the project. More surprising was the stiff resistance from Nebraska, where Governor Dave Heineman urged U.S. President Barack Obama to halt the project. Heineman expressed concern that a potential leak in the pipeline would damage the Ogallala Aquifer, a vital source of water for a state dependent on agriculture. As summer turned to fall and the opposition grew louder, Girling and company maintained the pipeline was safe and assured investors they were confident it would be approved. Unions were on board, as they were eager for the estimated 20,000 jobs the pipeline would bring.  

But in November the State Department announced it would delay a final decision until 2013 -- sparing Obama a potential political hot potato in an election year. TransCanada responded, saying it would design a new route for the pipeline, which the Nebraska government supported.

J. Michael Pearson, Chairman and CEO, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International

2011 was the year of the Valeant Pharmaceuticals takeover. And the man behind that push was Valeant CEO J. Michael Pearson.

The year started off rough after the company lost out in its bid for Cephalon. But it quickly responded with a takeover of Sanitas, followed by takeovers of Dermik skincare, Janssen skincare and iNova. Valeant ended 2011 by winning a takeover battle with Paladin Labs for Afexa, maker of the popular Cold FX tablets.

Aaron Regent, CEO, Barrick Gold

Can you turn copper into gold? Investors would be wise to ask Barrick Gold CEO Aaron Regent that question after the company made a massive bet on copper. Barrick purchased Equinox Minerals for about $7.3 billion US -- beating out China’s Minmetals Resources in the process.

Already the largest gold producer in the world, Barrick will double its copper production with the Equinox purchase. Equinox owns the Lumwana copper mine in the Zambian copper belt and most of the Jabal Sayid project in Saudi Arabia.

Investors have been skeptical of the deal as copper prices have fallen more than 30 percent this year on fears of a global slowdown. But Regent said the company was not changing its focus from gold to copper: “The outlook for gold and our bullishness on gold hasn't changed.” This gold bug is still bullish.

Marc Tellier, CEO, Yellow Media

2011 was the year that Yellow Media’s business model, which mostly involves delivering massive Yellow Pages phone directories, finally broke under the weight of the web. As a result, Yellow Media’s CEO Marc Tellier was savaged for his handling of the company’s transition to the online space. He’s also had to fend off criticism of the company’s massive debt load and the elimination of its dividend after several promises that it wouldn’t do so.  

Analysts and ratings agencies, who at one point hailed the leadership of Tellier, also bailed ship. Yellow Media’s fall from grace can be summed up by its stock price. On January 1, 2011 shares traded at $6.20. On October, 3 … they hit a 52-week low of 12.5 cents.