[Verse 1]
Hudson's Bay was built to last
Canadian dreams, Canadian past
Nine thousand jobs, eighty stores
Now the vultures circle at our doors
NRDC swooped in to buy
Media says it's Amazon's lie
But the workers know what we can see
Private equity stripped it clean
[Chorus]
Empty shells in every town
What goes up must come back down
They buy it, strip it, sell the parts
Breaking Canadian business hearts
From sea to sea, the story's told
Our companies bought and sold
Empty shells in every town
Never fifty-one, don't let us down
[Verse 2]
VetStrategy started here at home
Canadian-owned, Canadian grown
Sold to Canadian private hands
Then shipped off to foreign lands
European buyers, American gold
The same old story gets retold
Our businesses climb the PE chain
Till nothing Canadian remains
[Chorus]
Empty shells in every town
What goes up must come back down
They buy it, strip it, sell the parts
Breaking Canadian business hearts
From sea to sea, the story's told
Our companies bought and sold
Empty shells in every town
Never fifty-one, don't let us down
[Bridge]
Six point six billion for defense
But who owns what? It makes no sense
If private equity holds the keys
To our security overseas
OSC wants retail in the game
Same broken metrics, same old shame
Misleading returns, sophisticated lies
While sovereignty slowly dies
[Verse 3]
Never fifty-one they cry
Don't let our independence die
Every buyout, every sale
Another piece of our own tale
Sold away for quarterly gain
While communities feel the pain
The extraction game's the same
Foreign profits, Canadian shame
[Chorus]
Empty shells in every town
What goes up must come back down
They buy it, strip it, sell the parts
Breaking Canadian business hearts
From sea to sea, the story's told
Our companies bought and sold
Empty shells in every town
Never fifty-one, don't let us down
[Outro]
Look around your hometown square
Count the shells that once were there
What they know that you don't yet
Every sale's a safer bet
For them, not us, the game's the same
Empty shells is PE's name