Last updated by BM on December 30, 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 of The List was the same with an average return of +7.2% YTD (income).
- Last week, the price of The List was up from the previous week with an average return of +14.2% YTD (capital).
- Last week, no company on The List made a dividend announcement.
- Last week, no company on The List released an earnings report.
- This week, no company from The List will report their earnings.
DGI Clipboard
“I measure our progress primarily on the basis of the income we are collecting and the growth of that income through dividend increases.”
– Josh Peters
Starting the New Year the Same Way We Ended It: With Growing Income
Intro
As we wrap up the year, it is worth stepping back and asking a simple question. How do you actually measure progress as an investor?
At Magic Pants, we do not measure success by headlines or short-term market moves. We measure it by the income our portfolios generate and the rate at which that income grows through dividend increases.
That focus matters, because while prices fluctuate, income compounds. And when you own high quality businesses that consistently raise their dividends, progress shows up year after year, even when markets feel noisy or uncertain.
2025 was another strong reminder of why this long-term approach works. Our watchlists delivered solid dividend growth on both sides of the border, and the strategy continued to do exactly what it is designed to do. Create a growing stream of income first, with capital appreciation following over a full market cycle.
In this post, I will briefly recap the year, share where our income growth came from, and outline what to expect next as we head into 2026.
The List (Canada)
The List is our Canadian dividend-growth watchlist and is updated weekly in the newsletter. In 2025, all but one company increased its dividend, producing an average dividend growth rate of 7.2%.
Bell Canada was the lone exception, announcing a 56% dividend cut midway through the year. TELUS followed with a dividend pause in early December, which puts it at risk of removal from the watchlist in 2026. These developments underscore an important reminder: dividend growth investing rewards discipline, but it also demands accountability.
From a capital perspective, the Canadian market delivered a strong year, driven largely by gold miners and the major banks. Returns were broad-based, with roughly one-quarter of our watchlist posting gains of 30% or more in 2025.
The standout for dividend growth investors was TD Bank, which surged 69% on the year. After being widely written off by investors, TD’s rebound served as a powerful validation of our process: focusing on quality, valuation, and patience rather than narratives.
Looking ahead, The List for 2026, which will be released next week, will look very similar to this year’s version. Only a handful of changes are expected. We are not positioning for any specific market storyline. Instead, we remain committed to our core methodology: owning high-quality dividend growth businesses and holding them for steadily rising income.
The List – USA
The List-USA is our American dividend growth watchlist and is updated monthly in the newsletter. In 2025, every company on the list increased its dividend, with an average growth rate of 8.1%.
The U.S. market told a familiar story of haves and have-nots. Portfolios, with meaningful exposure to AI-related stocks performed well, while much of the broader market produced single-digit capital returns, only beginning to show renewed momentum late in the year.
Six companies on The List-USA delivered capital gains north of 20%, but several high-quality dividend growers declined by a similar magnitude. The result was muted overall capital progress for the watchlist despite strong underlying dividend growth.
While capital returns across this watchlist and the U.S. model portfolio were underwhelming, we view this period as constructive. It allowed us to add high-quality dividend growers at attractive valuations, positioning the portfolio for what we expect to be a stronger rebound in 2026.
As always, our focus remains unchanged: growing income first and allowing capital appreciation to follow over a full market cycle.
Takeaway
2025 reminded investors that staying invested – diversified and forward-looking – still matters more than timing every headline.
Over the next few days, we will release our watchlists for the Canadian and U.S. dividend growth companies we follow each week in our newsletter.
The new watchlists will officially go into effect at the close of trading on Friday, January 2, 2026. Each stock on the list will be equally weighted using the closing prices from that day.
These watchlists are a core coaching tool. We use them throughout the year to reinforce discipline, evaluate decisions, and keep the focus on process rather than short-term outcomes. Once published, they are locked in and cannot be changed until next year.
That structure is intentional. It removes hindsight, prevents tinkering, and forces us to live with our decisions in real time, just like every investor should.
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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 the same, with an average return of +7.2% YTD (income).
The price of ‘The List’ was up from the previous week, with an average YTD return of +14.2% (capital).
Top Performers Last Week:
- Toromont Industries (TIH-T), up +3.11%.
- Franco Nevada (FNV-N), up +2.61%
- TC Energy Corp. (TRP-T) up +1.79%.
Worst Performer Last Week:
- Magna (MGA-N) down -2.07%.
| SYMBOL | COMPANY | YLD | PRICE | YTD % | DIV | YTD % | STREAK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATD-T | Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. | 1.1% | $74.04 | -6.34% | $0.80 | 11.1% | 15 |
| BCE-T | Bell Canada | 9.1% | $31.44 | -6.21% | $2.87 | -28.1% | 16 |
| BIP-N | Brookfield Infrastructure Partners | 4.9% | $35.15 | 10.33% | $1.72 | 6.2% | 17 |
| CCL-B-T | CCL Industries Inc. | 1.5% | $86.51 | 17.51% | $1.28 | 10.3% | 23 |
| CNR-T | Canadian National Railway | 2.6% | $134.95 | -8.06% | $3.55 | 5.0% | 29 |
| CTC-A-T | Canadian Tire | 4.1% | $172.43 | 12.18% | $7.10 | 1.4% | 14 |
| CU-T | Canadian Utilities Limited | 4.3% | $42.28 | 21.56% | $1.83 | 1.0% | 53 |
| DOL-T | Dollarama Inc. | 0.2% | $205.30 | 46.43% | $0.41 | 18.1% | 14 |
| EMA-T | Emera | 4.3% | $67.04 | 25.24% | $2.92 | 1.2% | 18 |
| ENB-T | Enbridge Inc. | 5.8% | $64.88 | 4.87% | $3.77 | 3.0% | 29 |
| ENGH-T | Enghouse Systems Limited | 5.7% | $20.48 | -24.32% | $1.16 | 16.0% | 18 |
| FNV-N | Franco Nevada | 0.7% | $217.41 | 79.48% | $1.52 | 5.6% | 17 |
| FTS-T | Fortis Inc. | 3.5% | $70.64 | 18.48% | $2.49 | 4.2% | 51 |
| GSY-T | goeasy Ltd. | 4.4% | $131.25 | -21.48% | $5.84 | 24.8% | 10 |
| IFC-T | Intact Financial | 1.9% | $283.83 | 7.93% | $5.32 | 9.9% | 20 |
| L-T | Loblaw Companies Limited | 0.9% | $61.45 | 29.21% | $0.55 | 15.2% | 13 |
| MFC-T | Manulife Financial | 3.5% | $50.12 | 14.06% | $1.76 | 10.0% | 11 |
| MGA-N | Magna | 3.6% | $53.99 | 29.35% | $1.94 | 2.1% | 15 |
| MRU-T | Metro Inc. | 1.5% | $97.97 | 8.65% | $1.48 | 10.4% | 30 |
| RY-T | Royal Bank of Canada | 2.6% | $233.85 | 35.75% | $6.04 | 7.9% | 14 |
| SJ-T | Stella-Jones Inc. | 1.4% | $86.47 | 18.47% | $1.24 | 10.7% | 20 |
| STN-T | Stantec Inc. | 0.7% | $130.88 | 15.71% | $0.89 | 7.3% | 13 |
| T-T | Telus | 9.4% | $17.50 | -10.85% | $1.64 | 7.0% | 21 |
| TD-T | TD Bank | 3.3% | $129.16 | 68.84% | $4.20 | 2.9% | 14 |
| TFII-N | TFI International | 1.7% | $106.31 | -19.83% | $1.80 | 12.5% | 14 |
| TIH-T | Toromont Industries | 1.2% | $166.65 | 47.35% | $2.08 | 8.3% | 35 |
| TRI-Q | Thomson Reuters | 1.8% | $133.21 | -17.96% | $2.38 | 10.2% | 31 |
| TRP-T | TC Energy Corp. | 4.5% | $76.31 | 11.86% | $3.40 | 3.3% | 24 |
| WCN-N | Waste Connections | 0.7% | $178.14 | 4.84% | $1.30 | 10.7% | 15 |
| Averages | 3.1% | 14.2% | 7.2% | 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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