The activist shareholder pushing for an overhaul of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., now armed with a powerful endorsement, is pushing ever closer to victory in a looming board showdown rarely seen in Canada.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. was dealt a potentially devastating blow Thursday in its ongoing battle with activist investor Bill Ackman after an influential proxy advisory firm issued a scathing report recommending shareholders show several incumbent directors the boardroom door, including chairman John Cleghorn and its chief executive Fred Green.

Later this month in Calgary, Canadian Pacific Railway — a national history-maker since 1881 — appears set to make history again. At the company’s annual meeting on May 17, the betting is that CP’s board of directors and management will be overthrown by a U.S. hedge-fund operator. But he won’t be operating alone. Canada’s institutional investors may be providing cover.

Hedge fund manager William Ackman just got more ammunition in his battle to shake up Canada’s No. 2 railroad.

A proxy advisory firm says a dissident shareholder has made a “compelling” case for a shake-up at Canadian Pacific Railway.

A month before a showdown over who should run Canada’s second biggest railroad, more than half of the shareholders in a Reuters survey favor a dissident shareholder’s slate of candidates over Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd’s existing board.

As Bill Ackman’s campaign to win voter support for a new board at Canadian Pacific moves into its final month, the New York activist is stepping up pressure with a shareholder letter faulting the railway for its resistance to change.

CP Rail is set to report strong first quarter earnings on Friday that will far exceed expectations, but hedge fund Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman argues one good quarter, due to mild weather, won’t turn around the company.

Activist investor Bill Ackman is urging his fellow shareholders of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP/TSX) to withhold their votes for all of the company’s existing directors as the easiest way to implement a management change.

Activist investor Bill Ackman is urging his fellow shareholders of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. to withhold their votes for all of the company’s existing directors as the easiest way to implement a management change.