The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Lowe's finally made a breakthrough with its friendly $3.2-billion takeover of Rona almost four years after the North Carolina-based home-reno giant's hostile bid for the Quebec chain was unanimously panned by panicking politicians. The Globe's Konrad Yakabuski writes that then, Liberal premier Jean Charest's government declared Rona a "strategic asset" whose sale "would be not be in Quebec's interest." Current Liberal Premier Philippe Couillard did not comment Wednesday, when Lowe's won over Rona's board with an offer worth twice the retailer's stock price. Lowe's made its move after Mr. Couillard took office in 2014, ousting Pauline Marois's short-lived PQ government that promised (but never delivered on) a host of measures aimed at preventing hostile takeovers of Quebec companies. One of those never-enacted measures involved creating a $10-billion fund at the Caisse to buy equity stakes in local companies vulnerable to foreign takeovers. The irony is that most of Quebec's best-known companies -- Quebecor, Bombardier, Couche-Tard, Power Corp., CGI and Jean Coutu -- are insulated from hostile takeovers by virtue of their dual-class share structures.