Last updated by BM on June 10, 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.
Don’t miss out on exclusive newsletters and premium content that will help you sharpen your investing strategy. Explore it all at magicpants.substack.com.
Your journey to dividend growth mastery starts here – let’s dive in!
- Last week, dividend growth of The List stayed the same with an average return of +6.9% YTD (income).
- Last week, the price of The List was down from the previous week with an average return of +7.0% YTD (capital).
- Last week, there were no dividend announcements from companies on The List.
- Last week, there was one earnings report from companies on The List.
- This week, one company on The List will report on their off-cycle earnings.
DGI Clipboard
“Selling in a downturn to fund expenses is like trying to climb a hill while sliding backward.”
– Christine Benz, Director of Personal Finance & Retirement Planning at Morningstar, Inc.
The Retirement Risk No One Talks About and How DGI Solves It
Intro
The Silent Threat to Retirees: Understanding Sequence Risk Through a Dividend Growth Lens
Market volatility is a known challenge for investors, but for retirees, it carries a more dangerous form: sequence risk.
What Is Sequence Risk?
Sequence risk refers to the danger of poor investment returns early in retirement, just as you begin withdrawing income. When withdrawals coincide with market losses, your portfolio can suffer lasting damage, reducing its ability to recover and increasing the risk of outliving your savings.
Consider two retirees with identical portfolios and returns. If Retiree A sees losses early on and Retiree B experiences them later, A could run out of money much sooner—even with the same average return.
This isn’t just theory. Retirees in 2000 or 2008 saw how withdrawing during downturns locks in losses and shrinks the capital base needed for future growth.
Why Traditional Strategies Fall Short
Most retirement strategies rely on a 4% systematic withdrawal rule, selling stocks and bonds to generate income. But markets don’t deliver smooth returns. During downturns, retirees must sell more shares to meet income needs—especially damaging if losses persist.
Diversification can help, but in global sell-offs like 2008 or 2020, most assets fall together. Inflation adds further pressure, as rising withdrawals are needed to preserve purchasing power.
How Dividend Growth Investing Helps
Dividend Growth Investing (DGI) focuses on owning quality companies that consistently increase their dividends. This approach offers natural protection against sequence risk:
- Income Without Selling
DGI lets you live off dividends, reducing or eliminating the need to sell shares during downturns. Your income comes from business results, not market swings. Whether it’s 2025 or 2030, if dividends cover your expenses, volatility matters less.
- Steady Dividends in Tough Times
While stock prices fluctuate, dividends from high-quality companies are far more stable. Many Dividend Aristocrats raised payouts through the dot-com crash, 2008, and the pandemic. That consistency provides confidence and helps weather storms.
- Growing Income Beats Inflation
Dividend growth helps not just to maintain but increase purchasing power. If your dividends rise from $40,000 to $44,500 over a few years, you’re staying ahead of inflation—without touching your principal. That’s a sharp contrast to drawdown strategies, which risk faster depletion during poor market periods.
- A Psychological Advantage
Watching portfolio value drop while selling assets creates anxiety. But seeing dividends roll in provides peace of mind. Holding quality companies that reward shareholders allows you to tune out the noise and stay focused on income—not price.
This mindset shift helps investors avoid emotional mistakes that can derail retirement plans.
Important Considerations
No strategy is flawless. DGI requires selectivity. Not all dividend payers are reliable—some cut dividends in tough times. That’s why quality matters. Focus on companies with:
- Consistent free cash flow
- Conservative payout ratios
- Long dividend growth histories
- Strong competitive advantages
Also, a successful DGI portfolio takes time. Start early, reinvest dividends, and let compounding do its work.
Wrap Up
Sequence risk is real—and it can derail even the best retirement plans. But dividend growth investing offers a compelling alternative. By focusing on the growing income streams from world-class companies, you can build a retirement portfolio that’s resilient, predictable, and empowering.
You don’t have to guess where the market will go next. You just need to own great businesses and let them work for you—one dividend at a time.
If you’re worried about what sequence risk means for your retirement, take a second look at your investment approach. A portfolio built on growing income might be the safest path to peace of mind.
Join as a paying subscriber to gain full access to this post and exclusive, subscriber-only content. Plus, get real-time DGI alerts from our model signaling service whenever we make trades in our portfolios. We do the work; you stay in control. Subscribe today and take your dividend growth investing to the next level.
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 stayed the same, with an average return of +6.9% YTD (income).
The price of ‘The List’ was down from the previous week, with an average YTD return of +7.0% (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 Stantec Inc. (STN-T), up +3.07%; goeasy Ltd. (GSY-T), up +2.72%; and TFI International (TFII-N), up +1.96%.
Enghouse Systems Limited (ENGH-T) was the worst performer last week, down -9.55%.
| SYMBOL | COMPANY | YLD | PRICE | YTD % | DIV | YTD % | STREAK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATD-T | Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. | 1.1% | $72.14 | -8.74% | $0.78 | 8.3% | 15 |
| BCE-T | Bell Canada | 9.6% | $29.82 | -11.04% | $2.87 | -28.1% | 16 |
| BIP-N | Brookfield Infrastructure Partners | 5.1% | $33.51 | 5.18% | $1.72 | 6.2% | 17 |
| CCL-B-T | CCL Industries Inc. | 1.6% | $78.15 | 6.15% | $1.28 | 10.3% | 23 |
| CNR-T | Canadian National Railway | 2.5% | $143.75 | -2.06% | $3.55 | 5.0% | 29 |
| CTC-A-T | Canadian Tire | 4.0% | $177.30 | 15.35% | $7.10 | 1.4% | 14 |
| CU-T | Canadian Utilities Limited | 4.9% | $37.66 | 8.28% | $1.83 | 1.0% | 53 |
| DOL-T | Dollarama Inc. | 0.2% | $176.09 | 25.60% | $0.41 | 18.1% | 14 |
| EMA-T | Emera | 4.8% | $60.51 | 13.04% | $2.90 | 0.7% | 18 |
| ENB-T | Enbridge Inc. | 5.9% | $63.70 | 2.96% | $3.77 | 3.0% | 29 |
| ENGH-T | Enghouse Systems Limited | 4.9% | $23.87 | -11.79% | $1.16 | 16.0% | 18 |
| FNV-N | Franco Nevada | 0.9% | $167.21 | 38.04% | $1.52 | 5.6% | 17 |
| FTS-T | Fortis Inc. | 3.8% | $65.04 | 9.09% | $2.46 | 3.1% | 51 |
| GSY-T | goeasy Ltd. | 3.8% | $153.53 | -8.15% | $5.84 | 24.8% | 10 |
| IFC-T | Intact Financial | 1.7% | $311.94 | 18.62% | $5.32 | 9.9% | 20 |
| L-T | Loblaw Companies Limited | 1.0% | $221.58 | 16.49% | $2.21 | 15.2% | 13 |
| MFC-T | Manulife Financial | 4.0% | $44.42 | 1.09% | $1.76 | 10.0% | 11 |
| MGA-N | Magna | 5.3% | $36.62 | -12.27% | $1.94 | 2.1% | 15 |
| MRU-T | Metro Inc. | 1.4% | $104.69 | 16.10% | $1.48 | 10.4% | 30 |
| RY-T | Royal Bank of Canada | 3.5% | $174.57 | 1.34% | $6.04 | 7.9% | 14 |
| SJ-T | Stella-Jones Inc. | 1.6% | $77.21 | 5.78% | $1.24 | 10.7% | 20 |
| STN-T | Stantec Inc. | 0.6% | $145.51 | 28.64% | $0.89 | 7.3% | 13 |
| T-T | Telus | 7.3% | $22.38 | 14.01% | $1.64 | 7.0% | 21 |
| TD-T | TD Bank | 4.4% | $96.35 | 25.95% | $4.20 | 2.9% | 14 |
| TFII-N | TFI International | 2.1% | $87.72 | -33.85% | $1.80 | 12.5% | 14 |
| TIH-T | Toromont Industries | 1.7% | $119.70 | 5.84% | $2.08 | 8.3% | 35 |
| TRI-Q | Thomson Reuters | 1.2% | $195.00 | 20.09% | $2.38 | 10.2% | 31 |
| TRP-T | TC Energy Corp. | 4.9% | $69.48 | 1.85% | $3.40 | 3.3% | 24 |
| WCN-N | Waste Connections | 0.7% | $190.22 | 11.95% | $1.26 | 7.7% | 15 |
| Averages | 3.3% | 7.0% | 6.9% | 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.
PAID subscribers enjoy full access to our enhanced weekly newsletter, premium content, and easy-to-follow trade alerts so they can build DGI portfolios alongside ours. This service provides the resources to develop your DGI business plan confidently. We do the work; you stay in control!
It truly is the subscription that pays dividends!
The greatest investment you can make is in yourself. Are you ready to take that step?
For more articles and the full newsletter, check us out on magicpants.substack.com.
