The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that a decade after a flurry of corporate takeovers spurred national soul-searching, precisely the opposite story is playing out. The Globe's Ian McGugan and Barrie McKenna write that Canadian companies are bulking up to global scale through a spate of bold mergers and acquisitions. Last week, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan and Agrium of Calgary announced that they want to merge. Enbridge unveiled a U.S. deal that will result in North America's biggest energy infrastructure firm. Earlier, Alimentation Couche-Tard completed a supersized U.S. acquisition of its own to become the continent's No. 1 operator of convenience stores. Corporate Canada's appetite for growth has its risks, especially in a stock market that seems fully valued. However, it is a logical reaction to two global trends -- agonizingly slow economic growth coupled with record-low interest rates. Companies in many countries have responded to those twin factors by doing what comes naturally. They have used cheap money to take over rivals, thus boosting the acquirer's revenue despite the slow-growth environment. Global mergers and acquisitions activity reached a record $5-trillion (U.S.) in 2015.