The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that heading into 2026, the outlook for cross-border mergers and acquisitions is heating up, despite (or because of) Canada's chilly trade relationship with the United States. The Globe's Andrew Willis writes that in the coming year, business leaders in virtually every sector will continue to bulk up by acquiring U.S. companies. In everything from tech to food, the playbook is to better compete for customers in the U.S. by owning factories there. In the mining, energy and beleaguered lumber sectors, there are expectations of continued domestic M&A to build larger, lower-cost producers that send resources to both the U.S. and Asian markets. Companies are also bulking up locally. Building a dominant platform in the oil sands drove last year's bidding war over MEG Energy, ultimately won by Cenovus. It is also the reason Athabasca Oil, the smallest remaining oil sands producer, and a slew of natural gas producers enter 2026 as targets. In telecom, Telus is likely to sell a minority stake in its Telus Health division -- valued at up to $10-billion -- to a global investor such as Baring Private Equity Asia, which previously backed the telco's Telus International.