Investing offers Canadians tremendous potential to meaningfully grow their hard-earned savings. However, the key to building serious long-term wealth isn’t trying to time the market; it’s time in the market. It’s incredibly difficult to consistently try and flip stocks or chase the hottest trends. Instead, the best strategy is to buy high-quality Canadian stocks with decades of potential.
Long-term investing is the best strategy for investors because it helps mitigate short-term risk and rewards patience over speculation. Instead of buying stocks and hoping for short-term price movements in your favour, you buy businesses that will naturally grow for years. That’s why the best stocks to buy are those high-quality companies that can steadily compound earnings, dividends, and cash flow over decades.
So how do you identify which Canadian stocks are worth buying and holding for the long haul? The key is to find businesses with durable competitive advantages, strong management, and the ability to adapt as the economy and industries evolve.
Furthermore, these stocks often operate in industries that are essential to the economy, have proven execution track records, and offer investors a blend of growth, stability, and income potential.
So, if you’re looking for the best Canadian stocks to buy now and hold for the next 20 years, here are three names to consider today.
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One of the best Canadian stocks to buy and hold for decades
If you’re looking for high-quality Canadian stocks you can have confidence holding for the long haul, there’s no question that Brookfield Corporation (TSX: BN) is one of the best you can consider.
Brookfield is a global powerhouse in the asset management space. It has more than $900 billion in assets under management across several sectors, including real estate, infrastructure, renewable energy, and private equity.
It’s not only its diversified portfolio and global reach that make Brookfield one of the best Canadian stocks to buy, though. Much of Brookfield’s success comes from its ability to consistently identify undervalued assets, unlock their potential, and generate long-term cash flow through disciplined investing.
Furthermore, its entire business model is built for compounding since Brookfield earns management fees from its assets under management, co-invests alongside clients, and constantly recycles profits into new, higher-return opportunities.
So, if you’re looking for top-notch Canadian stocks to buy and hold for the next 20 years, Brookfield is easily one of the best to consider.
A top Canadian agriculture company
In addition to Brookfield, another massive Canadian company with essential operations and years of long-term growth potential is Nutrien (TSX: NTR), an ultra-reliable agriculture stock.
Agriculture may not sound as exciting to investors as tech or other growth stocks. However, over the long haul, it’s one of the most reliable and necessary industries in the world. And with Nutrien being the largest fertilizer producer in the world, it has a dominant position in an industry that will only continue to expand.
Furthermore, it isn’t just the size and scale of Nutrien that make it one of the best Canadian stocks to buy and hold for years. It’s also its vertical integration.
So, although Nutrien produces nitrogen, potash, and phosphate fertilizers, it also operates a global retail network that sells directly to farmers.
Plus, not only does Nutrien have decades of growth potential ahead, but it also trades at a forward enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EV/EBITDA) ratio of just 6.4 times, below its historical average of 7.6 times.
One of the best Canadian REITs to buy now
The real estate sector is an excellent place to find high-quality Canadian stocks to buy for the long haul, and one of the best to consider right now is Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (TSX: CAR.UN).
CAPREIT, as it’s known, is the largest residential REIT in Canada, offering investors exposure to a portfolio of thousands of rental units across the country. Therefore, it’s a stock that offers both the potential for growth and income.
In fact, right now, not only does it offer a dividend yield of 3.9%, above its five-year average of 3.6%, but it also trades at a forward price-to-funds-from-operations ratio of 15 times, below its five-year average of 19.7 times, making it one of the best Canadian stocks you can buy today.
