The ‘obvious candidate’: Jeanne Pratt favoured by lawyers, academics to take over as competition commissioner

Acting competition commissioner Jeanne Pratt may soon have the ‘acting’ tag removed from her job title, according to leading legal scholars and competition lawyers. Pratt, who has been a senior deputy commissioner at the Competition Bureau since 2015, has been identified as the frontrunner to become the agency’s next permanent leader. She would fill a vacancy left by the country’s longest-serving commissioner, Matthew Boswell, who headed the bureau from 2018 until his voluntary departure in December 2025. During his tenure, Boswell won praise from pro-competition stakeholders for taking on various cases, launching more investigations, and “energizing” the national law enforcement agency tasked with protecting competition to the benefit of Canadians. Perhaps most notably, Boswell spearheaded the bureau’s efforts to block the amalgamation of Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., which the agency suggested could worsen telecom competition and increase consumer prices in western Canada. Boswell has since taken a new role at the British-American legal giant Norton Rose Fulbright, leaving Pratt in the bureau’s top role on a temporary basis, but the federal government has yet to initiate the governor-in-council process that will appoint his successor. However, the rumour mill is already in full gear. “Pratt would be the obvious candidate,” said a competition lawyer, who wished to remain anonymous in order to speak freely. “She’s been there for several years, when all the amendments were made, and she’s the frontrunner, assuming she wants it.” Another lawyer in the competition space, who also asked not to be named, called the acting commissioner an “incredible candidate” to remain in the job moving forwards. “She understands the business perspective on competition law enforcement, and she’s been at the very highest levels of the bureau for many years,” they told The Wire Report. In her longstanding role as deputy commissioner, Pratt has led the agency’s mergers and monopolistic practices branch. She has also worked on criminal matters and, before joining the bureau, she worked on competition and antitrust law at the Toronto-based firm McCarthy Tétrault. Since December, Pratt has been invested with all the powers of a full-time commissioner, who is charged with administering and enforcing the Competition Act — a position that also received additional authorities following several legislative updates under Justin Trudeau’s government. In a statement, Pratt would not divulge whether she would pursue the appointment, but noted it is a “privilege to serve as the Acting Commissioner of Competition and to oversee the important work of the Bureau.” “As you may be aware, the position of Commissioner of Competition is a Governor in Council appointment,” she wrote. “That being the case, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on that process.” According to Jennifer Quaid, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, the acting commissioner’s desire to lead the bureau will likely have a trickle-down effect on other prospective applicants. "If she is in the running, I suspect many other people will not put their names forward,” Quaid said in an interview. “Jeanne is the person who most people are thinking will be the next commissioner.” “ there will be other people who will be considered…, it’s not a coronation.” Quaid emphasized how the last three commissioners had all been acting commissioners before being permanently appointed, including Boswell, John Pecman, and Melanie Aitken, which means the government may want to look outside the agency for viable candidates. “Maybe there’s a sense there needs to be a break in that pattern,” she said. “But if Jeanne were to stay on in her current role ..., the next commissioner would be very well-supported.” Among the other names that have been floated are CRTC chair Vicky Eatrides, who previously served as the bureau’s senior deputy commissioner, as well as several private practitioners, including Joshua Krane, a partner at the Western Canadian firm MLT Aikins. Quaid said Eatrides has sought the Competition Bureau’s top posting “for a while,” but what she described as “mixed reviews” of Eatrides’ leadership at Canada’s telecommunications regulator might limit her chances at succeeding Boswell. Eatrides has suggested she’s not interested in moving back to the bureau, despite her extensive experience in competition law. "I am so focused on the CRTC and I'm honestly excited about what we have going on,” she said in an interview last week. “I've got a couple more years here. I have a job I love my job. I feel very, very fortunate to work here." "I'm 1,000 per cent invested in the CRTC." Meanwhile, Krane said the government “needs to bring in an outsider” during a phone interview on March 10. “The agency requires some transformation,” he said. “They have to be more strategic in how they take their cases… I think they need to figure out a way to move the cases along more quickly.” When asked, Krane, who heads MLT Aikins’ competition branch and previously worked at the bureau, did not deny that he would pursue the role. “It’s up to the government who they’re going to choose,” he said. “ competition is really my life’s work, and it would be tough to turn down that call.” One source who previously worked at the Competition Bureau said Krane is someone in the legal community who has “bucked certain trends,” adding that he’s a strong critic of big tech companies and a vocal advocate for changes at the agency. Keldon Bester, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, said his organization is not “stumping” for one particular candidate, but he would like to see the next commissioner build on Boswell’s efforts to create a “more assertive, faster-moving and more transparent law enforcement agency.” “We are at the beginning of a process,” he said. “The bureau was given a set of new tools that allows it to be more effective…, but we still have hallmarks of an organization that is used to being a black box… and not having a sense of urgency.” “The task of the next commissioner is to come with this vision on… how can the Competition Act and the Competition Bureau itself make life more affordable for Canadians… and how can the bureau ensure fair competition between Canadian companies and some American companies in an environment when there’s extreme pressure… in favour of American companies.” Bester added that the debate between an internal versus external hire remains an “ongoing question.” “An external hire is more likely to shake up the culture…, but the risk is that it could be a positive direction or a negative direction,” he said. “ an internal candidate is more likely to understand the vision that Boswell started…, but the risk is they are unable to change the culture because they are embedded in it.” “So, the government should be considering both.” For Michael Trebilcock, a law expert and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, the ideal candidate “does not exist,” but they should hold a combination of expertise in legal, economic and institutional matters. “There’s a set of legal issues that require significant legal expertise… and economic expertise,” he said. “But there is also an issue of integrating the Competition Bureau with other agencies of the federal government, the CRTC, National Transportation Agency, and Department of Finance.” “One of my concerns over the years is that the bureau is not as integrated with these collateral institutions as it should be.” In June 2023, the bureau teamed up with the CRTC, Copyright Board, and privacy commissioner’s office to create the Digital Regulators Forum, which sought to promote data-sharing and inter-agency collaboration. Trebilcock envisioned a transformed leadership structure for the bureau that would feature a triumvirate of commissioners — a chief commissioner dedicated to one area of expertise, with two deputies responsible for the other areas. Currently, there is no timeline for when a permanent competition commissioner will be named. The process follows governor-in-council protocols that must be initiated by Industry Minister Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Que.), whose office did not provide comment on when that might happen. Elsewhere, Pierre Cugen, a spokesperson for the Privy Council Office, said in a statement that “information on the appointment of the Commissioner of Competition will be made available in due course.” dlegree@thewirereport.ca

The ‘obvious candidate’: Jeanne Pratt favoured by lawyers, academics to take over as competition commissioner

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By Davis Legree
|March 10, 2026

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The ‘obvious candidate’: Jeanne Pratt favoured by lawyers, academics to take over as competition commissioner

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