The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that when Shopify's share price rallied earlier this month on upbeat quarterly financial results, the e-commerce software giant moved past Royal Bank of Canada to take the top spot, if only briefly, as Canada's most valuable company. The Globe's David Berman writes this is not the stock's first appearance at the top of the Canadian benchmark. It first moved past RBC in 2020, when on-line retailing looked like one of the few promising bets during pandemic lockdowns, while the business of bank lending appeared fragile. Shopify then followed the pattern established by other companies that had triumphed over RBC, like Nortel, Valeant and Barrick. The stock slumped sharply over an 11-month period between 2021 and 2022. Shopify's return to the top of the Toronto Stock Exchange follows a resounding 470-per-cent rally from the stock's 2022 low, bringing the price close to a new record high last week before a slight dip on Thursday and Friday. The company was worth $269-billion on Wednesday, based on the combined value of its outstanding shares. That was $5-billion more than RBC's market capitalization. Mr. Berman says Shopify's brief return suggests the stock belongs there.