The ratings aren’t in yet, but it’s a foregone conclusion that last week’s episode of Heather and Larry was the funniest sit-com to hit the Canadian business scene since, well, ever. Whoever writes their stuff is a comedy genius. Around the water cooler here they’re still talking about the one-liners.

Because Mr. Corcoran writes for a business journal the humour is inevitably just a pretty wrapper for a serious comment or report of some variety. Seriousness in this case comes in the form of a basic overview of the politics, which in some ways is its own joke, that prompted the sit-com like argument between Chapters’ chief executives present and past.

Two major decisions loom. The first is the Competition Bureau’s review of the Chapters-Indigo merger. The second, coming in the near future, is Heritage Canada’s review of an Amazon.com application to set up a call centre in Canada. The scarier Heather’s message, and the funnier, the greater the chances are that bureaucrats and politicians will rig the decisions in Heather’s favour. Given the political sensitivities of the Competition Bureau these days and the obvious political nature of anything in Heritage, it’s a good ploy on Heather’s part.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the Competition Bureau — and certainly not Canadian Heritage — will follow the Financial Post’s advice on this issue, with which I agree: leave Chapters-Indigo alone and quit trying to control the market by blocking potential competitors just because they aren’t “Canadian” enough.

[T]he arrival of some solid competition from abroad should give us a new show with a new name, and even more classic Canadian corporate comedy.

Hat tip to National Post Headline Scan

And, as usual Mr. Stevenson and Ms. Reisman are not getting along particularly well. Ms. Reisman accused Mr. Stevenson’s management team of “fundamental waste and bad management” (including suspicious accounting) and specifically stated that without her takeover Chapters would have been bankrupt in 12 months. All of which Mr. Stevenson unsurprisingly described as being “categorically untrue.”

He said Ms. Reisman’s assertion “is factually incorrect, categorically false and frankly without merit. She doesn’t give one substantiated piece of evidence to support that claim.”

The Globe concluded the article with this quote from Michael Harrison, president of the Association of Canadian Publishers, taking the side of Ms. Reisman:

A good number [of Canadian publishers] are in severe trouble thanks to Chapters. I have no doubt that a lot of them are suffering very severe cash flow problems right now, and to that extent, I think what Heather Reisman is saying is pretty close to the truth.

Hat tip to Buzz.ca