Business: Adieu, Montreal

Sun Life shifts to Toronto

The 26-story granite headquarters of the Sun Life Assurance Co. in Montreal was once the largest office building in the British Empire, the secular cathedral of the English-speaking business elite in the world's second largest French-speaking city. Now it is a symbol of panic in the face of Quebec's threat to separate from the rest of Canada. Last week Sun Life's 1 million policy holders voted by a 5-to-1 ratio to transfer the headquarters to Toronto, Canada's bustling financial capital. Sun Life (assets: $5.5 billion) thus became the biggest company to move out of Quebec, although it...

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