Key Points
- For the proxy year ending June 30, 2025, OxProx collaborated with Kaivalya Research to analyze 4.57 million vote records from 464 institutional investors. This Canada Supplement focuses on 629K voting records from 28 Canadian institutional investors — 8 asset owners and 20 asset managers.
- A North American Divide — Canadian asset owners vote FOR ESG proposals at much higher rates than US asset managers, reflecting fundamentally different stewardship philosophies across the 49th Parallel. The gap is largest on Social Capital (+39.6 pp), Supply Chain (+34.9 pp), and Environment: Shareholder-Led (+28.4 pp).
- A Canadian Divide — While less stark than the North American Divide, the domestic divergence between Canadian AOs and Canadian AMs is significant across several categories. Canadian AOs vote FOR shareholder proposals at much higher rates than Canadian AMs in Social Capital (+22.7 pp), Governance (+14.9 pp), and Supply Chain (+14.5 pp).
Published by OxProx in partnership with Kaivalya Research . All data is drawn from the full Proxy Voting Divergence Report .
The data reveals a consistent pattern: Canadian asset owners show materially greater support for ESG and shareholder-initiated proposals than their US and Canadian asset manager counterparts. This Supplement highlights where those gaps are widest — identifying the proposal categories where divergence is most pronounced.
Voting divergence may be attributable to asset owners’ longer-term investment horizons, more direct connection to beneficiaries, and their ability to capture qualitative as well as financial returns. Asset managers are often measured against a simple risk and return benchmark and may reach different conclusions for votes on ESG issues.
A North American Divide
This chart ranks all proposal categories by the gap between Canadian AO and US AM “FOR” vote rates. Categories where Canadian AOs vote FOR more than US AMs (positive divergence) appear to the right; categories where US AMs vote FOR more appear to the left. The divergence is stark on Social Capital (+39.6 pp) and Supply Chain (+34.9 pp).
There is nearly a 20 pp gap between Canadian AOs and US managers on Shareholder-Led Governance (19.3 pp), Climate (18.9 pp), and Human Capital (18.1 pp) proposals. Mgmt-Led Environment is the only category where US managers voted FOR at double-digit rates more than Canadian AOs (−19.0 pp). These data suggest Canadian asset owners and US asset managers hold fundamentally different stewardship philosophies.
Canadian Asset Owners vs US Asset Managers — FOR Vote Differential (pp), All Categories
A Canadian Divide
The domestic data suggest Canadian asset owners and Canadian asset managers hold meaningfully different stewardship philosophies on ESG issues — a “Canadian Divide” — although the gap is less stark than the North American Divide. The chart ranks proposal categories by the gap between Canadian AO and Canadian AM FOR vote rates.
The divergence is largest on Social Capital (+22.7 pp) and Governance: Shareholder-Led (+14.9 pp). Supply Chain shows a 14.5 pp gap in favour of Canadian AOs, followed by Environment: Shareholder-Led (+7.6 pp), Human Capital (+6.8 pp), and Climate (+5.4 pp). Mgmt-Led Environment is the only category where Canadian AMs voted FOR at double-digit rates more than Canadian AOs (−13.2 pp).
Canadian Asset Owners vs Canadian Asset Managers — FOR Vote Differential (pp), All Categories
Source: OxProx Canada Supplement to the Proxy Voting Divergence Report, Proxy Year 2024–25, published in partnership with Kaivalya Research. Analysis based on 629K voting records from 28 Canadian institutional investors. All data drawn from the full Proxy Voting Divergence Report. All rights reserved.
Read the full Proxy Voting Divergence Report here
OxProx would like to extend a special thanks to our Research Partner, Kaivalya Research, for providing advisory services and rigorous analysis on the dataset that underlies this report.
