2 TSX Dividend Stocks I’d Hold for the Next Decade

Decade-long dividend holds are rarer than they might seem. Most high-yielding stocks promise steady income but eventually hit a wall — a balance sheet that gets stretched, a competitive shift that pressures margins, or a payout that outgrows the free cash flow funding it. The ones that actually work over 10 years tend to share one trait: management teams that are honest about the trade-offs and willing to accept short-term pain to protect the long-term income stream.

For patient income investors who can sit through an uncomfortable period in exchange for a much better setup later, these two TSX stocks are worth considering.

T

TELUS (TSX: T) looks like the obvious candidate here as the yield has stayed unusually high, and management openly leaned into protecting the payout while it fixes the balance sheet. Over the last year, the big news has been a deliberate pivot from aggressive dividend growth to “dividend stability,” paired with a clearer deleveraging plan and more emphasis on free cash flow. It also kept pushing its growth levers in health and digital services while trying to keep the core telecom machine humming with steady customer adds.

In 2025, TELUS delivered record free cash flow of $2.2 billion, up 11%, and it laid out a 2026 free cash flow target of about $2.45 billion, which would represent another step up. In Q4 2025, it posted operating revenues of about $5.2 billion and free cash flow of $574 million, up 7% year over year, while maintaining a firm focus on cost controls and margin-accretive growth. It also ended 2025 with net debt to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 3.4 times and flagged a path to 3.3 times or lower by the end of 2026.

On valuation and income, TELUS recently showed an annual dividend rate around $1.65 and a dividend yield close to 9%. Plus, the board reiterated the quarterly dividend at $0.4184 per share. The valuation looks like a classic “cheap for a reason” setup, with a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) around 26, but the real lens for telecoms is cash flow coverage and leverage. The upside over a decade is that if it keeps growing free cash flow while capital intensity moderates, the market can re-rate it and the yield can compress for a strong total return.

AQN

Algonquin Power & Utilities (TSX: AQN) is a different kind of “hold and wait” idea, but for different reasons. After its dividend reset, the yield has sat closer to the mid-single digits or lower depending on the day and the currency view. Currently, that yield is just under 4%. Over the last year, the news flow has centred on simplifying the story, leaning harder into the regulated utility base, and continuing to move past the clean-power complexity that hurt confidence. It also made an operational leadership move by appointing a new COO, which reads like an execution-first posture.

In the third quarter, the dividend stock reported adjusted net earnings of $71.7 million, or $0.09 per share, up from $64.9 million, or $0.08, a year earlier, and nine-month adjusted net earnings of $219.5 million, or $0.28 per share. Net earnings also improved sharply versus the prior year period that included major discontinued-operations noise, which helps explain why the stock has started to feel less chaotic. The dividend stock held its common dividend at $0.37 annually, so that tells you it is prioritizing stability while it works through the turnaround.

AQN has looked optically “cheap,” but utility turnarounds always demand patience because the market wants multiple clean quarters before it trusts the story again. If the regulated utility segment keeps improving and the balance sheet stays on a steadier path, the growth potential comes from a re-rating more than from explosive earnings growth.

Bottom line

If you want two TSX income names you could realistically hold for a decade, these two offer strong dividends and a future outlook, along with a cheaper share price. And right now, even $7,000 in each can set you up for success.

Neither stock is suitable for investors who need certainty right now. But both are suitable for investors who understand what they are buying — a turnaround and a recovery — and are willing to collect some income while the story plays out.