Last updated by BM on April 8, 2025
Summary
Welcome to this week’s MP Market Review – your go-to source for insights and updates on the Canadian dividend growth companies we track on ‘The List’! While we’ve expanded our watchlists to include U.S. companies (The List-USA), our Canadian lineup remains the cornerstone of our coaching approach.
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Your journey to dividend growth mastery starts here – let’s dive in!
- Last week, dividend growth was up, with an average return of +7.5% YTD (income).
- Last week, the price of ‘The List’ was down from the previous week with an average return of -2.12% YTD (capital).
- Last week, there was one dividend announcement from a company on ‘The List’.
- Last week, there was one earnings report from a company on ‘The List’.
- This week, no companies on ‘The List’ are due to report earnings.
DGI Clipboard
“President Trump declared Wednesday to be “Liberation Day.” This is when Americans would finally be released from the bootheel of unfair trade policies. Unfortunately for many investors, all they were liberated from was their money.”
– Eddy Elfenbein, CWS market Review
The Magic Pants That Made Me a Dividend Growth Investor
Intro
“You have a pair of pants. In the left pocket, you have $100. You take $1 out of the left pocket and put in the right pocket. You now have $101. There is no diminution of dollars in your left pocket. That is one magic pair of pants.”
I came across this magic pants analogy in an article on dividend investing about twenty years ago, and it stuck with me. It was one of the early sparks that led me to seriously explore dividend growth investing and question whether there really was something “magical” about it.
The past week in the stock market served as a great reminder of why I made the switch. I was looking for an approach that could deliver reliable, growing income even when markets were falling. The year-to-date income for ‘The List’ is now up 7.5%, thanks to another dividend increase last week from Dollarama Inc. And the best part? We didn’t have to sell a single share to achieve that. While the broader market declined, our capital held up far better. That’s the power of dividend growth investing, steady income and downside protection, no matter what the market’s doing.
Why Dividend Growth Investing Offers a More Sustainable Path
Relying on total return investing—especially when it means selling shares for income—introduces unnecessary complexity and risk. Selling shares to generate cash flow forces investors to constantly monitor the market, time their sales, and make judgment calls that can be clouded by emotion or volatility. It turns investing into a kind of ongoing speculation rather than a disciplined wealth-building strategy.
Dividend growth investing, by contrast, shifts the focus from selling to holding. It replaces the need to create your own income with a reliable, growing income stream that comes to you—quarter after quarter, year after year. There’s comfort and confidence in knowing your portfolio is paying you to hold it.
And unlike broad-market ETFs, which often dilute quality by holding “too many losers,” a curated portfolio of quality dividend growers focuses only on high-conviction, proven businesses with long-term track records of shareholder returns. It allows investors to concentrate on excellence, not just participate in averages.
While diversification is often sold as protection, real downside protection comes from owning resilient, cash-generating businesses bought at sensible prices, that raise dividends even in tough times. Dividend growth investing isn’t about chasing the highest returns, it’s about building a dependable, inflation-beating income that grows over time, with the added bonus of long-term capital appreciation.
Wrap Up
Last week was not an easy one for growth-only investors. Rather than piling on, I’m going to offer some advice: take your recent crashes and drawdowns as learning opportunities to rethink your process. If your investment horizon is 3–5 years, this sell-off is your chance. Stay calm, buy high-quality individual dividend growth companies, and hold for the growing income. You’ll thank yourself later.
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DGI Scorecard
The List (2025)
The Magic Pants 2025 list includes 29 Canadian dividend growth stocks. Here are the criteria to be considered a candidate on ‘The List’:
- Dividend growth streak: 10 years or more.
- Market cap: Minimum one billion dollars.
- Diversification: Limit of five companies per sector, preferably two per industry.
- Cyclicality: Exclude REITs and pure-play energy companies due to high cyclicality.
Based on these criteria, companies are added or removed from ‘The List’ annually on January 1. Prices and dividends are updated weekly.
‘The List’ is not a portfolio but a coaching tool that helps us think about ideas and risk manage our model portfolio. We own some but not all the companies on ‘The List’. In other words, we might want to buy these companies when valuation looks attractive.
Our newsletter provides readers with a comprehensive insight into the implementation and advantages of our Canadian dividend growth investing strategy. This evidence-based, unbiased approach empowers DIY investors to outperform both actively managed dividend funds and passively managed indexes and dividend ETFs over longer-term horizons.
Performance of ‘The List’
Last week, dividend growth was up, with an average return of +7.5% YTD (income).
The price of ‘The List’ was down from the previous week, with an average YTD return of -2.12% (capital).
Even though prices may fluctuate, the dependable growth in our income does not. Stay the course. You will be happy you did.
Last week’s best performers on ‘The List’ were Loblaw Companies Limited (L-T), up +3.45%; TFI International (TFII-N), up +3.22%; and Metro Inc. (MRU-T), up +2.73%.
Manulife Financial (MFC-T) was the worst performer last week, down -10.35%.
| SYMBOL | COMPANY | YLD | PRICE | YTD % | DIV | YTD % | STREAK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATD-T | Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. | 1.1% | $70.16 | -11.25% | $0.78 | 8.3% | 15 |
| BCE-T | Bell Canada | 12.3% | $32.38 | -3.40% | $3.99 | 0.0% | 16 |
| BIP-N | Brookfield Infrastructure Partners | 6.2% | $27.63 | -13.28% | $1.72 | 6.2% | 17 |
| CCL-B-T | CCL Industries Inc. | 1.9% | $67.61 | -8.16% | $1.28 | 10.3% | 23 |
| CNR-T | Canadian National Railway | 2.6% | $137.37 | -6.41% | $3.55 | 5.0% | 29 |
| CTC-A-T | Canadian Tire | 4.9% | $144.56 | -5.95% | $7.10 | 1.4% | 14 |
| CU-T | Canadian Utilities Limited | 5.0% | $36.65 | 5.38% | $1.83 | 1.0% | 53 |
| DOL-T | Dollarama Inc. | 0.3% | $154.03 | 9.86% | $0.41 | 18.1% | 14 |
| EMA-T | Emera | 4.8% | $60.85 | 13.67% | $2.90 | 0.7% | 18 |
| ENB-T | Enbridge Inc. | 6.1% | $61.74 | -0.21% | $3.77 | 3.0% | 29 |
| ENGH-T | Enghouse Systems Limited | 4.8% | $24.02 | -11.23% | $1.16 | 16.0% | 18 |
| FNV-N | Franco Nevada | 1.0% | $145.02 | 19.72% | $1.52 | 5.6% | 17 |
| FTS-T | Fortis Inc. | 3.7% | $65.71 | 10.21% | $2.46 | 3.1% | 51 |
| GSY-T | goeasy Ltd. | 4.1% | $141.81 | -15.17% | $5.84 | 24.8% | 10 |
| IFC-T | Intact Financial | 1.9% | $281.55 | 7.07% | $5.32 | 9.9% | 20 |
| L-T | Loblaw Companies Limited | 1.0% | $205.14 | 7.84% | $2.05 | 7.0% | 13 |
| MFC-T | Manulife Financial | 4.5% | $39.50 | -10.10% | $1.76 | 10.0% | 11 |
| MGA-N | Magna | 6.0% | $32.47 | -22.21% | $1.94 | 2.1% | 15 |
| MRU-T | Metro Inc. | 1.5% | $100.42 | 11.37% | $1.48 | 10.4% | 30 |
| RY-T | Royal Bank of Canada | 3.8% | $157.82 | -8.39% | $5.92 | 5.7% | 14 |
| SJ-T | Stella-Jones Inc. | 1.9% | $65.81 | -9.84% | $1.24 | 10.7% | 20 |
| STN-T | Stantec Inc. | 0.8% | $114.22 | 0.98% | $0.89 | 7.3% | 13 |
| T-T | Telus | 7.8% | $20.60 | 4.94% | $1.61 | 5.2% | 21 |
| TD-T | TD Bank | 5.2% | $81.20 | 6.14% | $4.20 | 2.9% | 14 |
| TFII-N | TFI International | 2.3% | $79.46 | -40.08% | $1.80 | 12.5% | 14 |
| TIH-T | Toromont Industries | 1.9% | $111.70 | -1.24% | $2.08 | 8.3% | 35 |
| TRI-Q | Thomson Reuters | 1.4% | $165.98 | 2.22% | $2.38 | 10.2% | 31 |
| TRP-T | TC Energy Corp. | 5.2% | $65.42 | -4.10% | $3.40 | 3.3% | 24 |
| WCN-N | Waste Connections | 0.7% | $186.95 | 10.03% | $1.26 | 7.7% | 15 |
| Averages | 3.6% | -2.12% | 7.5% | 21 |
Note: Stocks ending in “-N or -Q” declare earnings and dividends in US dollars. To achieve currency consistency between dividends and share price for these stocks, we have shown dividends in US dollars and share price in US dollars (these stocks are listed on a US exchange). The dividends for their Canadian counterparts (-T) would be converted into CDN dollars and would fluctuate with the exchange rate.
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