Canadian M&A Outlook For 2026

In our previous M&A report, we said fortune would favour the bold and, at the outset of 2026, we're seeing that come to pass in a variety of ways. In our outlook for the year, we expect the Canadian M&A market to continue its recovery, building on the key trends that helped spur deal activity in H2 2025.

Canadian domestic M&A

Public M&A

Public M&A deal activity continues to gain strength after a rebound in transactions in Q3 of 2025. Both deal value and deal count showed significant growth compared to the previous five years (see Figure 1), even surpassing the record-breaking levels seen in 2021. Macroeconomic factors and market trends, such as a lower interest rate environment, consolidation plays across sectors (such as mining), stronger valuations and the stabilization following tariff shocks, encouraged a return to more robust M&A deal activity—a momentum we expect to continue building through 2026.