The London Stock Exchange (LSE) announced a "merger" with the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

Why is this big for us? It's big because the great majority of the stocks we follow are Canadian based gold and silver mining companies that trade on the TSX. While most of the large cap miners trade on both the TSX and the NYSE or AMEX, many of the most exciting companies with the biggest upside potential trade solely on what is called the TSX-V, or TSX Venture (or sometimes still called the Vancouver Stock Exchange). However, as many of our international readers are aware, it isn't always easy to trade Canadian stocks, especially the TSX-V stocks, when you live and have brokerage accounts in other parts of the world.

This merger may help to change that. While there are still as many questions as answers, Xavier Rolet, the Chief Executive of the LSE stated, " We are creating the world's largest listings venue for the commodities, energy and natural resources sectors."

If that is their goal and if this creates an even bigger more accessible marketplace for many of the exciting small and medium sized mining companies that we follow in Canada then it could result in a dramatic rise in the valuations of these companies as millions of new investors could have easier access to invest in these companies.

However, before we get too excited, remember that Canada and most Canadians think they are very special and they believe that anyone who isn't Canadian just isn't as good-hearted as they are - so they are very xenophobic about heathens controlling any of "their" important Canadian holdings.

The Canadian Government routinely disallows all sorts of transactions because they aren't "in the best interests" of Canadians. Ask BHP Billiton who tried to buy a large Canadian potash company late last year but was turned away - because "fertilizer is strategically important to Canada".

If we had to bet on it we'd say that the deal will likely be turned down by the Canadian Government. After all, who knows what would happen to the Canadian stock exchanges if they weren't owned and controlled by someone who says about, "a-boot", loves hockey and didn't necessarily believe that the Canadian socialist healthcare system isn't a shining example of "free healthcare" that all others in the world should look to like a glowing beacon in a dark, dangerous world.

If the Canadian Government does turn down this transaction what they may in fact end up doing, however, is denying thousands of Canadian companies access to a much, much larger market by which they can expand, grow, merge and finance themselves.

In the meantime, for those investors who live outside of the US or Canada the best online brokerage that we know of in terms of access to the Canadian markets (along with most other global markets) at very competitive rates is Internaxx ( target="_blank"> The Dollar Vigilante