Canadian Tire, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023, operates 1,400 stores throughout Canada, of which 650 are company-owned and the remainder owned by franchisees and third-party dealers. Its brands include 371 Sport Chek and 383 Mark’s Work Wearhouse stores. Its own brand sales, which include hockey equipment maker Sherwood, now comprise almost 40% of its total sales, and it bought the intellectual property of the defunct Hudson’s Bay Company, including the iconic striped merchandise, for $30 million in 2025.

Dominion Energy is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia and is the largest utility serving Virginia. It provides regulated electricity services to 3.6 million customers in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and regulated gas services to 500,000 customers in South Carolina. The company is also one of the leading developers and operators of offshore wind and solar power in the US and is the largest provider of carbon free electricity in New England.

On May 18, NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE), the owner of Florida Power & Light and one of the largest utility companies in the US, announced an agreed $67 billion merger with Dominion. NEE is offering approximately $76 a Dominion share, all in NEE stock, with NextEra offering 0.8138 of its shares for each Dominion share held.

The merger will create the largest utility company in the US, and the third largest energy company in the States after ExxonMobil and Chevron, with a market capitalization of approximately $250 billion. The deal is subject to regulatory approval, which is expected to take between twelve and eighteen months. If approved, it will add Dominion’s 3.6 million customers to NextEra’s 12 million, enabling it to expand into the PJM Interconnection region, the largest US power grid operator spanning 13 states.

Fairfax Financial is one of the largest North American property/casualty and reinsurance companies, which has been managed for the last 40 years by its CEO Prem Watsa. Watsa has often been described as the “Warren Buffet of Canada” due to his value-oriented investment approach and his entertaining and perceptive annual letters to shareholders.

Leon’s, which operates Canada’s largest home furnishing chain under its own name and its subsidiary The Brick, has 299 stores nationwide. It has continued to deliver moderate sales growth despite cost-of-living pressures and the ability of consumers to defer large-ticket purchases such as furniture and home appliances.

Freehold has assets predominately in western Canada, although it is expanding in the US. It has a portfolio of about 6 million gross acres in Canada and 1.2 million in the US, producing from over 21,000 wells. Freehold owns the mineral rights but does not operate the wells, incurring no capital costs for drilling or equipment, allowing it to pay monthly dividends.