The Canadian Investor - Ranking Canada’s 30 Largest Stocks (Part 2)

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

We’re kicking off a two-part series ranking the 30 largest public companies in Canada based purely on business quality. In Part 2, we tackle the last 15 names (and 2 bonus names) covering everything from banks and pipelines to precious metals—sharing our perspective on which business models stand the test of time and which ones carry more hidden risk. Tickers of stocks discussed: SHOP.TO, FNV.TO, NA.TO, DOL.TO, RY.TO, BN.TO, TRI.TO, WPM.TO, GIB.A.TO, CP.TO, ATD.TO, L.TO, IFC.TO, ENB.TO, BMO.TO, AEM.TO, CNQ.TO, CNR.TO, MFC.TO, TRP.TO, GWO.TO, CLS.TO, FFH.TO, SU.TO, IMO.TO, SLF.TO, ABX.TO, CM.TO, TD.TO, K.TO Watch the full video on Our New Youtube Channel! Check out our portfolio by going to Jointci.com Our Website Canadian Investor Podcast Network Twitter: @cdn_investing Simon’s twitter: @Fiat_Iceberg Braden’s twitter: @BradoCapital Dan’s Twitter: @stocktrades_ca Want to learn more about Real Estate Investing? Check out the Canadian Real Estate Investor Podcast! Apple Podcast - The Canadian Real Estate Investor  Spotify - The Canadian Real Estate Investor  Web player - The Canadian Real Estate Investor Asset Allocation ETFs | BMO Global Asset Management Sign up for Fiscal.ai for free to get easy access to global stock coverage and powerful AI investing tools. Register for EQ Bank, the seamless digital banking experience with better rates and no nonsense.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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opportunities for investors this has to be one of the biggest quarters I've seen from this company in quite some time welcome to the Canadian investor podcast I'm I'm here with Dan Kent. We are back for our part two of the 30 largest Canadian public companies. We are ranking them. And as a reminder, we're ranking them by quality here. So even though we may talk about valuations a little bit, we will definitely focus on the quality of the business.

So it's very possible that some of the business that we have in the S-tier, which would be the top tier, may not be great investment over the next five to 10 years. And same could be said from the country. companies that we actually have in the bottom tiers here. So it should be fun to wrap this up. A quick note, we added a couple of honorable mentions. So it's going to be 32 just because there was a few companies, three or four companies towards the end that were very close in market cap. So we just decided to add them at the end just for the hell of it just because it was very close. I think in the 45 billion range market cap is where they all bunch in together.

Yeah. And I think there are probably some pretty popular companies as well. So a lot of people might have been asking if they weren't included. But yeah, first half was fun. Obviously, S-tier, not too many S-tier in the first half, just Shopify, but that should be reserved for the best of the best. But yeah, let's get into it. Let's get started. Yeah, so the first one, Alimentation Cousteau. See how I didn't ask you to say that one.

Just to be nice. This one is a great Quebec story, obviously. But going forward is really where the questions come from. For me, is there going to be growth? looking forward and if so is there going to be actual same store sales grow there their merchandise grows is that going to grow on a real basis so inflation adjusted i'm sure it will grow to some extent and they've been on a rough couple of years especially with inflation we also saw some issues that i think they're panicking a little bit that's just my

perception in terms of growth and how aggressively they went after 7 and 9, the 711 Japanese parent company, how aggressively they went to that. And honestly, I think for a lot of people thinking they were like looking to overpay for it. And sure, they'll be able to do acquisitions, but they're so big now. And even though it's still fragment in terms of space, there are some real questions whether growth is going to be really good going forward. Yeah, I think inflation hit them hard. Also, a lot of people are kind of getting away from, you know, kind of pops and chips and hot dogs, stuff like that. And I think, you know, at these levels of prices, especially when consumers are struggling, that's why they haven't really done that well because they make, I think the majority, yeah, it's like just, you know, just over the majority of their revenue comes from fuel. But the higher margin stuff is, is in the chips and the pop and the hot dogs and stuff like that. So I know they're going like the fresh food route trying to get like healthier. options in the gas station, I mean, about as healthy as they can get. But yeah, I still think it's a very good company. I think there's a lot of runway for acquisitions just because,

I mean, it's so heavily fragmented, like you said. I would go A tier for Kustard. I don't know about you. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think there would have been an argument to be made in terms of S tier a few years ago. But now given, I think, really the growth prospects, there's some, there's some, I think, real questions. And I know there's some people that are big fans of this company and I I don't disagree that it's been a great story but you have to also when you're an investor look in the future right so what it's been in the past is going to be that in the future and I think it makes a whole lot of sense here now let's move on to Canadian National Rail so the second of the big railways obviously the two big railways that we have here

in Canada now Canadian National Rail well great network but really terrible capital allocation this management team. It's been really bad ever since Stacey Robinson took over in February of 2022. And of course, they were getting a lot of shareholder pressure to return more money to shareholders in general, which to their defense, they've executed. But the problem is they added about $9, $10 billion in debt in that span. Not really much growth to be showed. The stock price is down. They made a bunch of buybacks with that debt, which is never a great idea in my experience interest expense has gone up from six to about nine hundred million dollars not great as well so you're looking at much larger dead more interest expense buy bags done at a stock price

that was more elevated to me that's not a great recipe for a railway so i'll let you say what you think about it but i feel like i've probably said it right here yeah i mean i think it's kind of a weak management team that's protected by a very big moat or you could argue like the biggest moat in north america cp's kind of you know ate its lunch for the last while here because you know cns added all that debt and really has nothing to show for it whereas cp they've they've kind of taken on a bit of leverage but they also have kansas city southern like they they added an entire network so i think with the moat you almost have to you know put this one high up but i'd say you know management team i'd probably go beat here

like if we're putting CPJC no I think just for the network the fact that it's the mode is just so massive and at the end of the day I may be critical of this management team but who knows maybe they will

turn things around or they'll just bring a new management team like they came in after the previous one was a bit of a disaster so we'll have to see what decision is going to be taken for the next one when they do come but I think B

is definitely reasonable here. Yeah, I think if you're putting CPKC and A, you kind of got to go C and B because CP has been the better operated railway. Yeah, exactly. So now moving on here to manual life. So I think it's the first one of insurers, a group of insurers that we'll have in the back half here.

Now, I'm the first one to admit, I think you're kind of in the same boat too. I'm not the most well-versed in insurance companies. That's why I own Berkshire Hathaway, is I would prefer trust a management team that knows the business well than having to learn about it. It's quite complex and not something that interests me or gets me a whole lot excited. I know they've expanded in Asia, however, and they have a large wealth management arm.

And there's a lot of Asia exposure, of course, but North America to EPS seems to be trending in the right direction as well. But it will definitely be dependent on the markets and insurance at their core and insurance company at their core, but their wealth management is lightly going to be fuel for future growth or lag thereof. So that's kind of my quick overview on manual life here. Yeah, same with you. Like, I don't really know the life insurers all that well. I owned ManuLife a while ago. I will admit I, you know, I owned it not knowing the complexities of life insurance. I eventually sold it for intact, which would be a property and casualty insurer. But I do know that Manulife cut the

dividend during the financial crisis. And it kind of traded in the dollar. for a very long time until it broke out like a few years ago but I mean I just don't really know the business all that well I know it's probably if you're talking about life insurers it's probably the best the best I would say pretty close with something we'll talk about later like Sun Life but I don't know I I just don't know the business well enough I'd probably be tier it I mean yeah I I probably put in B or C just maybe because I just don't know it all that way for C but yeah we can do a B and I'm sure we'll get some comments of people that disagree but that's okay we'll go with B here now next on the list we have franco nevada

the second largest precious metal streamer slash royalty play in north america after weaton that we talked to earlier or in the first episode they have a cost per geo of three hundred and forty If you remember, you had Wheaton that was a cost per geo, a bit more around, if I remember correctly, $500 in that range. So $532, just had to look at it just now. So clearly lower, but they do have more royalty plays versus streaming plays. So royalty would be oftentimes just off of the revenue produced by a certain mind that they provided usually some financing for.

Whereas the streaming play, it's you get. get a certain percentage of the production at a pre-established cost per ounce. But nonetheless, it's a fantastic business model. I think I said it in the first episode. Maybe I didn't, but something I, well, first of all, I do own Franco Nevada. Full disclosure here, but it is something I'd be thinking about at just doing a equally weighted Franco Nevada and Wheaton. That's how I think how good these two companies are.

They also have no debt and in that cash position. And the valuation, of course, is never cheap. I know we're not talking about that. But in terms of business model, I think it's second to none if you're looking for metal, precious metal exposure. Yeah, I think if you look to like gold from, it was probably like 2011 leading up until the pandemic, like gold went through a big bear run. And I think Franco ended up returning like nearly 300% over that time frame. Whereas a company like Barrick, we talked about in the previous episode, it has. actually ended up losing 40% over like that 10 plus year timeline. So I mean, if you think about

it, if you have, you know, Franco relies on the price of gold and other precious metals, no doubt. But when you have, you know, a 10 year dead market when it comes to gold and Franco can still go 300 plus percent or pretty close to that. Like that, those are ballpark numbers. It was pretty close to that. I think you have an outstanding business. I mean, the elephant in the room, I guess, here would be the Cobra Panama operation. I mean, that kind of highlights some issues with the business, but that just so happened to be, like, its biggest exposure. They shut that mine down and it ended up impacting it 20%, I think, to its EBITA. It could start up again right now. We're not, we're not 100% sure, but I would S-tier, Franco, like, I think when you have a business that

can absolutely crush it when gold is in the gutter for a decade. I don't know how you don't S tier that business? Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, it's a great business model if you're looking for precious metal exposure and you also own it. So full disclosure, we're both owners here. It goes into the S tier. Then again, it's still going to be price sensitive to the price of gold and precious metals in general. And the Cobrae Panama, I think it highlights some of the risk, but also some of the benefits of owning a streaming play, because despite that being about 20%, I think of the output that came to Franco Nevada. Yes, it was rough for six months to a year,

but now the market started pricing that in, the fact that it would likely be a full ride-off. Now we're actually seeing some better news that may actually reopen in the next couple years. It's not a super high probability, but the government of Panama has been much more open about it. Public sentiment has shifted there in that country. So it just goes to show how important diversification is

in the mining space, And with the miners, you can only get so much diversification because there's so much overhead costs to operating these mines. But with these streamers, oftentimes they have hundreds of bets, right? Some will work, some won't work, but it gives them more diversification. And I think that's why it's such an attractive business model. And for those looking at mining companies, we've said it already, but you have to make sure you're aware of the political risk, too. because that's a prime example that Cobra, Panama.

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Having a space that actually felt like home helped me focus on my recovery rather than the stress of the trip. It really got me thinking about our own place. That host had provided me with some much-needed comfort when I really needed it, and maybe our home could do the same for someone else. Hosting our home on Airbnb would-led guests experience our neighborhood while giving us a little extra money to put toward a fun trip when I'm back on my feet. Plus, it's flexible, we decide exactly when it makes sense to host our home.

Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Calling all DIY, do-it-yourself investors. Blossom is an essential app for you. It has been blowing up with now more than 50,000 Canadians plus and growing who are using the app. Every time I go on there, I am shocked. The engagement is amazing. This is a really vibrant community that they're building.

People share their portfolios, their trades, their investment ideas in real time. And it's all built on the concept of transparency because brokerage accounts are linked. And then once you link your brokerage account, you can get in-depth portfolio insights, track your dividends. And there's other stuff like learning duolingo style education lessons that are completely free. You can search up Blossom social in the app store and join the community today. I'm on there. I encourage you go on there and follow me. search me up, some of the YouTubers and influencers and podcasters that you might know,

I bet you they're already on there. People are just on there talking, sharing their investment ideas and using the analytics tools. So go ahead, blossom social in the app store and I'll see you there. Now, moving on to the next name here, so TC Energy, do you want to go over that one because this is one I'm not as familiar with? Yeah, so TC, they used to be just a, well, they're a pipeline company, obviously, but they spun off Southbow that would have been a few years ago now which was their oil and gas pipeline keystone

I believe and that kind of turned the company like tc energy into a natural gas utility and power business effectively so it doesn't have any more exposure to crude debt is high like very high much like enbridge but earnings quality probably much higher than they were a few years ago I mean these pipelines kind of run their toll operators effectively especially you know a lot of them have contracts where they get paid regardless of, you know, how much commodity actually gets shipped through the pipelines. I'd probably go in the same tier as Enbridge just because they're not, the business model is great.

The mode is huge. Obviously, the infrastructure is very, very hard to replicate, but they just don't really grow all that fast. So, probably. B tier for TCN. Yeah. Just like a kind of a high yielding, low growth. I mean, bond proxy almost, I guess you could say.

Mm-hmm. No, that's good. So I don't have too much ad. So we'll just move on here to Fairfax Financial. Again, not one that I know extremely well, but definitely better than T.C. Energy. Fairfax has done really well over the last five years. It's a model similar to what Berkshire does in terms of having a large insurance business and investing the float. So essentially the premiums that they collect, they'll be investing part of that for longer-term returns.

They've made different bets than Buffett, definitely more on. the value side or deep value side has been a bit more the trend here. Fairfax, I think, did pretty well in the aftermath of the financial crisis. I think they navigated that pretty well. But afterwards, when the stock markets were doing quite well in the 2010s, I think some of the bets they did didn't pan out as well. And I think they're not as long the market or bullish as Buffett and Berkshire would be. They tend to hedge a little more, which can be. be good when there's some big corrections, but obviously when there isn't, it can impact you a bit more. And of course, they've been betting with their CEO Prem Watts. They've been betting more

on India, which could be a big tailwind for their business going forward to. Yeah, I've always chose Berkshire over Fairfax primarily because Berkshire or sorry, Fairfax kind of always goes that I don't want to say like pure speculative, but more like turnaround slash speculative front. I mean, they Blackberry would be one of the companies that they invested in based on, of a turnaround toys or us they ended up like toys or us in the u.s went bankrupt and they ended up buying a bunch of their assets in in canada and kind of betting on a turnaround they did end up making a bunch of money there but i mean it's kind of you know the way they go for a lot of their their bets and also like you'll never see berkshire taking these big macro bets but

fairfax kind of did i think i can't remember what they did at the end of the financial crisis they might have made a bunch of currency bets i can't remember but it ended up resulting in a lot, a long amount of underperformance. And I do believe that they, he speaks on it, like they kind of regret doing what they did. I think, um, they've kind of calmed down in that regard over the last while. I mean, the insurance side of the business is absolutely crushed it. It's been outstanding the last three, four years, but I would probably, I would probably a tier Fairfax. Well, I don't know. It's tough. They do have key person risk as well. Yeah, they do as well. Like, I think for me, it's, it's A or B. I think Prem wants, he's not young anymore. How old is he? Well, and I think there's a lot of issues in regards to potentially. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if it's a situation like Berkshire where, you know, they have people in place. Like, I think Fairfax family. Have they groomed? Yeah. Yeah. So, put a B because of that is we're not familiar with the, maybe if he was in his mid-50s, be an A, but, um, but, um,

And, you know, as you get older, there's, you have less life expectancy, although Berkshire and Buffett has proven the average wrong on that. So hopefully it's the same for Prem Watson, but let's just put it a B for now. Now, next on the list, Suncor, this is a company that I know has heard a lot of investors in the last 10 years or so. They tend to be seen as the second fiddle to Canadian natural resources. But the reality is the new CEO that's been there for a couple of years. now. Rich Kruger has been doing things the right way, I think. So he's been pushing for a lower

break-even cost. He's been pushing for better security and better safety as well and pushing for costs to constantly be lower. And it's really hard to hate that as an investor. They're looking to get it in the mid-40s dollar per barrel in terms of break-even. I'm not sure exactly where they're at right now. Maybe they're like mid, mid to high 40s, low 50s at this point. But he's been really pushing on that. That's what you want to see. And as a bonus, you get with them an integrated play. So you own refineries and also retail through their Petro Canada distributor. So there's, I think, a lot of things to like for Suncor. You can probably get a bit more as a discount versus Canadian natural resources. So definitely an interesting play. What do you

have to say about them. Yeah, all I'll say is when I worked when I worked up north there with Suncor was like the pretty much the way you don't run an oil company. I mean constant. But that was what 10 years ago? That was a long time ago. Like that was when I would have been like on the tools which would have been probably like 2016, 2017. Okay. Lots of outages like lots of safety issues. It looks like they've turned it around. But bad timing on buybacks back during COVID cut, you know, dividend cut. They ended up having to cut the dividend. The company really wasn't operated that well for years, but I haven't really paid a lot of attention to them, but I'll believe you when I say the new CEO is kind of turning things around. But I'll let you tier this one because I don't really know

them all that well. I like the diversification. Obviously, it doesn't have the same track record as Canadian national resources that we have in the B tier. So I have trouble putting in the B tier. I think I'll put it in the C tier, but recognizing that as an investment, it may actually do better than Canadian natural resources but the track record I think is it's what affects it here and I don't know if I said for this episode Canadian National Resources

I do have in my portfolio now next one here okay let's we had a little guest appearance with my daughter here that's okay we'll keep that in that's funny so the next one on the list Loblaws so the

largest it's really one of the well it is the largest grocer in Canada Yeah. I mean, they keep delivering. So, I mean, you could have done a lot worse than owning Loblaws over the last five to ten years. They've really done well. It's not going to be the most exciting business, but really what they've done with their in-store brand. You see it, and I'm sure people listening to shop at Loblaws or a great Canadian superstore, one of their brands, especially the discount ones. I mean, I go back to the chips, but now you're buying stuff for the holidays, right? And I've seen Lays Chip versus their store brands, whether it's the no name or they have some of the PC. And it's oftentimes like have the price of the brand names and they taste just as good. So personally, I would never buy the brand name. I'm always going to go to that. And clearly it's good for their business.

Yeah, they have a lot of like discount presents, probably the largest discount presence. And I think like they were, you know, they're a slow growing grocery company, but they had it's kind of similar to dollar ramma. They had like a ton of growth pulled forward because when you get 9% inflation, you're going to get a lot of people that are looking for cheaper groceries. I think they're probably one of the best management teams in the country in terms of like capital deployment. They've doubled their operating margins over the last five years, I think it is, which is very difficult for a company like this. And they've done that by just kind of reinvesting cash flow to make their stores more efficient, whether it be, you know, even even something as simple as improving like their. refrigeration capacity or efficiency of the stores. Like you would think that would be kind of a minor issue, but every single

improvement there goes to the bottom line, buybacks, they've spent billions of dollars on share buybacks at prices that are like a quarter of what the share price is today. So I think it's the best grocer in the country. I probably would nest here it just because the margins are, I mean, you're looking at bottom line profit margins of three percent. I think it's a need tier more as well in terms, it's just because you're upside is kind of.

a little bit, right? Like you're going to, you're buying a loblas because you appreciate the steadiness of the business that will perform well regardless of an environment. If I look at Shopify and Franco that we have up there, it might, it might be less steady, but in terms of potential upside, it's way greater. Of course, with upside says more downside to where you get protected with loblas. So I agree eight tier as well. Now, the last large bank here on the slate, so national bank you want to go over this one and i can chime in afterwards yeah so i would say they're they're up there with royal in terms of like being managed so well they they kind of made a few acquisitions over the last while canadian western obviously gets them out of

quebec because national bank is if you look to a lot of the canadian banks their loan portfolios will look like it'll be a huge chunk to ontario and then you know kind of the rest of the the country, whereas national is a huge chunk to Quebec and then kind of the rest of the country. So Canadian Western kind of gets them out of Quebec. And then just now they bought Laurentians retail assets. I mean, I think it's still set for approval, but it's probably going to go through. You know, they're probably one of the best in terms of return on equity, in terms of earnings growth, in terms of dividend growth. So I would probably A tier of them. They're up there with Royal. They have more risk, I guess you could say, because they're a bit more concentrated,

but they've handled it very, very well over the last while. Probably more room to grow, though, than a royal. Much more, yeah. I would argue. Yeah. So maybe, yeah, and I don't have too much to add. Clearly, though, with the Laurentian acquisition provided that gets approved, that's going to give them even more exposure to Quebec.

So not that it offsets the Canadian Western bank acquisition, but it's kind of funny that it just gives them more assets in Quebec. I mean, I have to think that obviously all, the big banks are also present in Quebec, but National Bank and Case Poplar, I would think, now are the two largest players. And for those not familiar, Case Poplar is a credit union that's very, it's very big in Quebec. I think it would be probably the seventh largest are right up there. In terms of assets, there's no, obviously it's a private company.

It's not publicly listed, but it's quite large. It's not your typical credit union. Yeah, they've killed it. I like him. I do own national. I own national and royal. Those are the two banks. I own. Okay. So now let's continue here. So we'll move on to imperial oil. Again, one that I'm not as familiar. So I'll let you lead the way for this one. So yeah, they imperial oil struggled for a while again. But now they're they're kind of doing very well. This is actually when I did work in the oil sense. This is actually who I worked for. The buybacks are pretty crazy. from this one. They've bought back over 33% of shares outstanding since 2021. So I mean, they've erased almost, well, pretty much a third of the shares. And I think it's, you know, a lot of these oil producers really have no future prospects to invest in. This isn't like the

oil heyday. We've seen kind of like post financial crisis where, you know, all those plants in northern Alberta were going up at an insane pace. And I mean, it was, it was booming here for sure. I think it's going to be more of that, you know, free cash flow return policy. They're going to return a ton of money to shareholders through buybacks and dividends. And I probably put this one, it's tough. It's probably, it's between B and C for me. I probably, let's put it in C just because we're running out of space for B. Yeah, like I think I don't know if it's as good as a producer as Canadian National, but I mean, yeah, it's close. We're putting it in C, but I, I mean, it's very, very, very close to be.

Yeah, between B and C, so let's put it in those. I recently had to travel to Calgary for some medical treatments, and I wanted it to feel like a home away from home while I was recovering. I found an apartment on Airbnb that made all the difference. While I was on demand, it helped that I could cook some homemade meal in a real kitchen and just sit in a comfortable living room or rest in bed. Having a space that actually felt like home helped me focus on my recovery rather than the stress of the trip.

It really got me thinking about our own place. That host had provided me with some much-needed comfort when I really needed it, and maybe our home could do the same for someone else. Hosting our home on Airbnb would-led guests experience our neighborhood while giving us a little extra money to put toward a fun trip when I'm back on my feet. Plus, it's flexible, we decide exactly when it makes sense to host our home.

Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Calling all DIY, do-it-yourself investors, Blossom is an essential app for you. It has been blowing up with now more than 50,000 Canadians plus and growing who are using the app. Every time I go on there, I am shocked. The engagement is amazing. This is a really vibrant community that they're building. And people share their portfolios, their trades, their investment ideas in real time.

And it's all built on the concept of transparency because brokerage accounts are linked. And then once you link your brokerage account, you can get in-depth portfolio insights, track your dividends. And there's other stuff like learning duolingo style education lessons that are completely free. You can search up Blossom Social in the app. App Store and join the community today. I'm on there. I encourage you go on there and follow me, search me up, some of the YouTubers and influencers and podcasters that you might know, I bet you they're already on there. People are just on there talking, sharing their investment ideas, and using the analytics tools. So go ahead, blossom social in the app store, and I'll see you

there. Now the next one, Waste Connection. I know it's a company that you own. I don't own myself, but definitely a very interesting play again. I would put in a similar category to loblaws in terms of a company that should do well regardless of the environment. I also a company that may not have a super high ceiling but again steady as she goes and very possible that you look back in five to ten years

and you can see that it either matched the markets or slightly outperform the market. I think these are the kind of companies that you, well the kind of returns that you tend to expect for these companies. Yeah, I mean, it's, I think it's up 1100% over the last 10 years. It's been, uh, markets. Yeah, it's absolutely crushed it over the last while.

I mean, they obviously with these waste disposal companies, it's kind of like law blah in regards to, you know, there's going to be activity regardless of the economy, but it is just a much higher margin profile than something like law blah. I mean, I think operating margins are close to 20%. I mean, pricing power kind of unmatched. acquisition strategy. They pretty much put like smaller haulers in a position where they, I don't want to say they have to sell, but they kind of, you know, they own the landfills so they charge these small haul companies like a ton of money to use the landfills.

And then eventually they just buy them so that they don't have to charge those tools to use the landfills. I mean, the landfills are assets that just can't be replicated, make them a ton of money. A lot of this stuff is inflation linked. So, you know, even if inflation gets to 9% again, And like, if you look to their pricing during COVID, they just effectively offset inflation and then some, I would, like, obviously this is a bit biased, but I would put waste connections S tier. And I know, I know where you're going. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it is a good business model. I mean, it's hard, it's hard for me to disagree. There is some competition, I think, when you start looking at obviously waste management in the U.S. who also has operations in Canada. So, I mean, yeah, I think. I can give it to you. I can put it in the S dear. The only, the only difference between waste management and waste connections is waste management is more urban, whereas waste connections is really kind of, you know, rural. They like smaller haulers that, you know, they play, they're kind of more small ball acquisition, whereas waste management makes big, big place.

So they are competition, but in terms of acquisitions, they're not, they don't really conflict all that much. There's plenty of room for, for both of them. I think they do both of them. I think waste connections owns, or sorry, waste management's 20% of the market. And I think waste connections is like six. So, yes. Yeah. Okay. So we'll put it in this here.

Feel free to disagree in the comments here below. Now the next one. And as a quick note, I don't think I mentioned it, but we're planning to release those, the full episodes on YouTube. So the first one, like we mentioned, will be on the stock trades YouTube. And the second one here will be on the Canadian investor podcast YouTube for, those interested. Make sure you subscribe to the channel. Now next on the list, Great West Life, similar to Manulife, but Great West Live gives you more exposure to the U.S. with Empower.

They'll be dependent on that AUM, so asset under management as well. But again, insurance is their core business here. So probably a bit safer than Manulife because of not having that Asian exposure, but maybe a bit less in terms of potential growth. So that's the overview. Anything to add here for Great West Live? No, again, I don't really know life insurers all that. The one thing I will say is like for the better part of like 15 years, these stocks pretty much traded

in tandem like share price wise until 2024 and then Manulife kind of just took off. I don't really know. Great West Live did did pretty well too. Oh yeah, they've both done very well. I think they're like 250% over the last 10 years. Like they're good companies. I just don't know them all that well, so I'd probably

beat here it. Same with manually. So just looking and Great West Life. Yeah, last five years, 131%. So it's done pretty well. Yeah, I mean, I'll put it B because I don't know enough to favor one over the next. So yeah, I'll go with Great West Life here. Okay. Now next on the list, so a pretty well-known company. I think anyone listening to this will know this one. So it's Dolorama, Dolorama, which has done extremely well. Especially, I would say, well, pretty much the last, what, 10 years, but it did very well during the pandemic where people were looking for ways to offset inflation. Yeah.

And they were able to still increase their prices, but still offer enough value for people to choose to go to Dollarama. And it feels like if you can't get to a Costco or you don't buy large quantities enough, you end up going to Dollarama. It's kind of the sense that I get, but they also have Latin app operations. that are doing quite well. So really impressive company. Every time I think it is going to slow down, it still keeps delivering. Yeah, it's, um, it was kind of the play like Dollar Emma and Loblo, I felt were kind of the play on like, you know, people looking to save money because costs have got, you know, so high.

Yeah, they have like Latin American exposure. What's called party city or no, sorry, Dollar City. And then they have Australia. They bought. Which is big in Columbia, which also has, I think they're old. some in Mexico, if I remember correct? They started a pilot. I think they have nine stores open in Mexico and then they bought the reject shop, which is a dollar

store in Australia and they're kind of right now, they're revamping. A lot of them turning them into to dollaramas because a lot of the time, if you look at a company like dollarama, they have like 25% operating margins, which is crazy. I mean, there's not another dollar store that even comes close to that. If you look to what's the one in the States, I can't remember, dollar tree. Dollar tree. Yeah, like they, dollar tree, dollar general, five. below there's a few different ones but dollar tree i think i think dollarama like

triples the operating margins of dollar tree so like in theory they're going to buy the reject shop in australia they're going to revamp them to dollarama which will improve the margin profile things like that and i think the company has a ton of runway because they've killed it just in canada alone so i mean if they can expand internationally yeah it's it's an amazing business so what are we going to do what tier yeah i mean i think at this point i would have struggled doing this, but it's hard to argue with their results. I think I would probably go S tier for them. I think so, yeah. Because if you think about it, if Loblaws is A and you have Dollarama, which is kind of a similar exposure with like five times the operating margins, I think S is

pretty appropriate. Yeah, the only thing would Dollarama going forward is, I know a lot of their stuff comes from China. So if Canada starts imposing tariffs on China a bit more aggressively, maybe to appease the US. I would not be surprised to see that in 2026, 2027. I think that's the bigger risk where a loblaws would not have as much risk to China in terms of exposure. So I think that would probably be the argument to also put in A, but I'm okay for now until those risks materialized to put in the S. Next on the list, intact financial. This one, I think you know a little bit. Do you own it? I can't remember. Yeah, I've own intact. for, I think I sold ManuLife in like 2021 and bought in tech. But yeah, they're a property and

casualty insurer. They're the largest in North America, I believe. And I think they own 18% of the market. Yeah. Bel Air Direct. Yeah, broker link, things like that. Yeah, they only own 18% of the market. But I think they're the largest P&C insurer in North America. I mean, property and casualty is usually more profitable than life insurance, but it's also exposed to like catastrophe losses. a lot of that type of stuff, especially, I mean, there's been a lot more recently, but yeah, they've been, I mean, they have one of the best combined ratios in the industry, which just quickly combined ratio is effectively the premiums collected versus what they have to pay out. You want to see it below 100%. I think intact is frequently like low 90s, which is

pretty good. I wouldn't S tier them. I'd probably A tier them. I mean, they've done very, very well. I'm on board with that, yeah. They've raised their dividend every year since their IPO back in 2004, like double-digit earnings growth pretty consistently. Yeah, they're pretty solid. They're the only P&C insurer on this list, I think. The rest of them are all life insurers. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think you're right. Now, Kinross Gold, so the last gold miner here coming in at number 30. And of course, there might be some small discrepancy by the time you hear this in terms of the market cab, but we did our best to put it as closely as possible as the data we had at the time of recording. And we're recording the second one on December 22nd.

The first one was done about seven days ago, I think. Ken Ross Gold here, the reason I, for me it would be at the bottom of the list in terms of producers. They have a all-in sustainable cost per ounce of gold of 1622 in the latest quarter. I believe that's higher than Barrick as well. Enocho was much lower, but I think Barrett Gold was also, yeah, was also lower than that. So that's clearly something you don't want to see. You want lower is typically better.

They have good geographical diversification, which is obviously better than Barrett Gold. So I think that's a plus for them. They have exposure to Brazil, Canada, U.S. and Africa. But again, there's still some jurisdiction where it can get trick in. We talked about the Cobrae, Panama. That's an example of what can happen. there is political risk and you're forced to either close a mine or modify your operations, which takes, which gives you a hit to your, your operating profits and your margins.

I'll let you talk a little bit and then we can put it in the ranking. Yeah, I don't know the company all that well. I mean, all in sustaining costs of $1,600 when you have exposure to places like Africa and Brazil. I mean, you look at Agniko. They're in very stable regions with lower costs. so I'd probably prefer Agniko. Yeah, I don't know. I would probably, I'd probably detere it with Barrick just because of that.

Yeah. Yeah, D or C, I think it's around there. Barrick, I guess the all in sustainable costs is lower. So that's a plus, but they have more risk, I think, from their political risk. So maybe, yeah, I think D is probably right. Of course, right now, all three of these companies are printing money. When you have the price of gold, which is looking at today, it's ripping again.

So it seems like it wants to hit 4,500 by the end of the year or something. It's 4433, so 4,433 in the USDA. So clearly, you know, they're making a whole lot of money right now, but you want to also look in the future if there's always, if there is a pullback in the price of gold or their cost, inflation starts picking up, the prices of oil starts picking. up their cost will also starts picking up even if the price of gold stays elevated if their costs keeps going up then of course that will eat in the margin so something to keep in mind but

i think uh d is good here now next on the list sunlife financial is your knowledge the same as manual life and uh great west life or you know a bit more about this one i know sunlife has a lot of exposure to the united states i think i can't remember there was something that happened in their business. So last year, I think that ended up, you know, their U.S. segment took a bit of a hit. I don't know if it was healthcare. I was trying to look it up, but they've really struggled over the last bit just because of those U.S. issues. I think U.S. earnings declined like 40% or something like that. But outside of that, yeah, it would be, it'd be much the same as me. Like I don't really know the business all that well to make any determination. I mean,

the one thing we can go. The one thing I do know is manual life and Great West are really not struggling at all anywhere, whereas Sun Life kind of is in the U.S. So for that reason, we could maybe C-tier it. Sure. We can put in C-tier again. We don't know these businesses very well, so keep that in mind. Go easy on us. Yeah, feel free to disagree with us.

That's completely fine. Now, the next one on the list, that if we have done, if we had done this a year ago, definitely would not have been on this lid. So Celestica, you want to go over a little bit here. I know it has like networking switches. It's benefited a lot by the server buildout for AI. This company has just been on a tear this year, but I think for the better part of a year and a half, two years now.

Yeah, I think back in it might have been 2022. This would have been a small cap stock. Now it's on the, you know, 32 biggest TSX stocks. It's pretty crazy. But yeah, networking switching, they have, they kind of design and manufacture a lot of stuff that goes into data centers, effectively like you can think of like something like gp u racks and things like that and i think this was like a very mediocre operated business for a very long time and then

a i kind of just fell into its lap obviously you can see if you look at their long term returns it was pretty much dead money for like i think it was close to 15 years or something like that it um yeah i think it returned 2% annually leading up until the big ai boom i know but in the last five year it's up 4,000 and 62% or that's what I mean it just like you can't I don't know if you could think of a single company that benefited more from you know the demand for products inside data centers it's it was absolutely crazy if we think of like where to tier it's kind of difficult because is it a strong business yes if AI spending ramps back up like yeah and i know they can do some custom stuff too right like i don't know the business very

well but as well they design yeah so like you can have like some designs right it kind of creates a bit of sticky revenue because say you work with a company like alphabet and you design a system for them if alphabet ever wants to you know get more of them or kind of make modifications they're going back to celestica and i don't know it's difficult for me because if data center spending slows or if demand, you know, if supply catches up with demand and we see a slowdown. It can be very cyclical. Let's just say that. And there could also be some other players whenever you see some like a company crushing

it for whatever reason, it does encourage competition. Yeah. So I'd be fine with like I'd be without knowing the business too well, just acknowledging some of the risk associated with a growth. Yep. Yeah. And like you do say it's cyclical, which it is. And it's just very difficult to know how cyclical it is.

because we don't really know how long this buildout is going to last. But the one thing I will say is, yeah, if data center spending slows down, they will be hit, they will be hit pretty hard. Okay. Well, I think that wraps it up.

So I will share here the present, doing the slideshow mode, so people can actually see the full screen. So in the S year as a wrap up, we have Shopify, Franco, Nevada, Waste Connection, Dollarama. A tier, we have RBC, Brookfield, Thompson, Reuters, Wheaton, Consolation, CPKC, alimentation Custall, Loblaws, National Bank, Intact, and then B, Bridge, BMO, Agnico Eagle,

Canadian Natural Resources, Canadian National Rail, Manulife, TC Energy, Fairfax, Great West Life, Celestica, C, we have Scotia Bank, Suncor, Imperial Oil, Sun Life, and D, we have Barrick, C-IBC, TD, and Kinros Gold, no companies in the E-tier. So, which is not surprising. I mean, if you get that large, you probably have a decent business model to begin with. That's usually where I come from. If you get into the 40-plus billion market cap, usually there's the reason for that unless it's pure speculation like some of them meme stocks but i don't think we're talking any meme stocks in

in all of these no i guess the one thing we'll say and we were we were discussing this before is there's no like you'll notice one specific industry that is missing that all all three of them would have been on this list even five years ago and that's the telecoms yeah that's correct yeah they're all in the i think around 15 20 25 30 billion kind of that range i i looked at it but Yeah, that was one that was surprising. The fact that Rogers, B.C. and TELUS, none of them are in this category. Pretty, pretty surprising. Yep.

And they've been, I think for the most part, like I was looking up a list, for the most part, they've been replaced by the gold producers. And I, that's right. It makes complete sense. Like a lot of these gold producers are up 300, 400% while the telecoms are down 30, 40%. Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, and you have also, I think there was nutrient that, was right on the verge, too, of making the list.

So there's quite a few that were closed, but the telcos were, yeah, they were not like a few billion off. Like, I think they were like in the five to ten billion range off at least. So just goes to show how they may have these businesses that, yes, have a whole lot of customers, but when your growth slows, there's clearly less immigration coming into Canada, which, of course, when people come into the country in large numbers. They need a cell phone. They need internet.

There's three major providers. They're probably going to get the bulk of that. And then when that slows down, it's clearly going to affect the business. And when you don't have a lot of new people coming into the country, then it does increase a competition because they are going aggressively again, like at one and another's business. So you can really leverage. And I did an episode on how you. You can cut your phone and internet bill back in November for financial literacy month.

So you can go back to that episode, but you can really play them against each other and reduce your telephone bill. And you can actually see that when you look at their revenue per user. It has gone down in recent years, I think in big part because of that. Yep. They thrived a lot on cheap debt, I would say post-financial crisis. And quickly, you know, when population grows quickly, obviously it's going to be a big part. tail win for this. It's pretty easy. And when you have a large fixed asset, the more subscribers

you can get to your services, there's not that much cost that go with adding other subscribers. Once you have them, I mean, the assets are there already, right? You're, you've already invested. So clearly for them, it was a big boom, but now also a problem as it's slowing significantly down. But aside from that, I think it was a fun one. Not exactly when it's going to air, but I'm assume this will be early in the year. So early in 2026, again, if you're listening to this, if you wanted to see the actual ranking with the visuals, go on YouTube, stocktrades.ca, YouTube for the part one. And then part two, this one will be on the Canadian investor podcast YouTube. So I encourage that. For those, I guess, we'll just wish everyone, Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year's, happy holidays, whichever one you celebrate. And we will be back soon on our regular Monday and Thursday a schedule. Again, not sure when this will be released, but we'll be back on a regular schedule. The Canadian Investor podcast should not be construed as investment or financial advice. The host and guest featured may own securities or assets discussed on this podcast. Always do your own due diligence or consult with a financial professional before making any financial or investment decisions.