Enbridge’s decision to buy Houston-based Spectra is another welcome sign that Canadian companies are motivated to orchestrate consolidation in a bid to become North American powerhouses, according to one portfolio manager.

“You sort of go historically, we’re left with Teck [Resources] after the mining consolidation, why doesn’t Canada have a BHP [Billiton] or a Rio Tinto? So I think it’s great to see something like Enbridge saying ‘we want to be a dominant North American player and get close to a $100-billion market cap like the Canadian banks,’” Bill Harris, partner and portfolio manager with Avenue Investment Management, told BNN in an interview on Tuesday.

“And you’re also seeing it right now with Potash [Corporation] and Agrium trying to do the same thing: ‘let’s be Canada’s national fertilizer-agricultural company.’”

Calgary-based Agrium and Saskatoon-based PotashCorp confirmed last week that they are in preliminary merger talks. Exactly a week later, Enbridge, Canada's largest pipeline company, has announced its plan to create the largest North American energy infrastructure company through a $37-billion all-stock takeover of Spectra.

“The bulk of this – our perception is – the investments will be done in the U.S. It’s not just that you can get them done in the U.S. […] but the bigger issue is you can get a better rate of return,” Harris said of Enbridge’s motivation to move away from the oil sands and buy a U.S. company.

A poll conducted by BNN revealed that 58 per cent of viewers believe Enbridge is buying Spectra to distance itself from the oil sands, while 42 per cent didn’t think that was the case.

Harris added that he “can certainly understand” the timing of the purchase from Enbridge’s perspective, but said the motivation for Spectra to strike the deal at this time is unclear. 

“We just don’t have that answer yet,” he said.