If governing is about choosing, a couple of governments have a big choice to make in the next few weeks. Shareholders of Canadian oil company Nexenapproved a $15bn takeover offer from China’s Cnoocby a pretty convincing 99 per cent last week. The deal’s fate is now in the hands of politicians in Ottawa and Washington.

There is hostility in Canada to the deal, which would see the state-controlled Chinese energy provider planting its big foot in the “oil patch”, as Canadians rather quaintly call their oil sands reserves. But there are compelling reasons to approve this acquisition.

Cnooc’s friendly, $27.50-a-share cash offer, launched in July, was pitched at a 60 per cent premium to Nexen’s undisturbed price. It came with sweeteners: a promise to make Calgary into Cnooc’s North American hub, and to list its shares on the Toronto stock exchange.