The best long-term investments don’t need perfect headlines. They need durable demand, reliable cash generation, and management teams that keep compounding per-share value through the quiet years — not just the exciting ones. That’s what makes the TFSA such a powerful vehicle: it rewards patience, and patience rewards businesses built to last.
If you’re a Canadian investor building a TFSA for the long run — someone who wants to own fewer, better businesses and let time do the work — these three stocks still belong on your radar a year on.
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Canadian Utilities (CU): A Regulated Compounder for Patient Investors
Canadian Utilities (TSX: CU) runs regulated and contracted utility assets — electric and natural gas transmission and distribution, plus infrastructure-adjacent operations — that don’t depend on consumers feeling confident or markets cooperating. It’s part of the ATCO family, and it earns its keep through steady execution rather than big swings.
Over the past year, that approach kept delivering. Canadian Utilities reported adjusted earnings of $658 million in 2025, or $2.42 per share, up from $2.38 per share in 2024. Fourth-quarter adjusted earnings came in at $197 million, or $0.72 per share. The stock has recently traded near a market cap of $13 billion, with a P/E around 24.3 and a dividend yield near 4%.
The outlook is steady rather than explosive, and that’s the point. Rate-base growth and disciplined capital spending can keep grinding this stock higher over time. For a TFSA investor who values income and durability over excitement, CU is exactly the kind of dull-but-effective holding the account is designed to reward.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP): A Network Built for Long-Term Trade
Railways are long-duration winners, and Canadian Pacific Kansas City‘s (TSX: CP) network is one of a kind. It links Canada, the United States, and Mexico — a structural advantage that becomes more valuable as near-shoring trends and cross-border trade flows keep evolving. Over the past year, CP kept focusing on execution and efficiency, posting strong operating metrics even as the economic backdrop felt mixed.
The numbers back that up. In Q4 2025, CP reported revenue of $3.9 billion, an operating ratio of 58.9%, and diluted EPS of $1.20, with core adjusted diluted EPS of $1.33. For the full year, revenue rose to approximately $15.07 billion, with adjusted earnings around $4.61 per share. Valuation stays premium — market cap near $105.7 billion, trailing P/E around 26, and a modest dividend yield of about 0.8% — but the upside comes from continued margin gains and volume resilience as the network matures.
The risks are real: a sharper freight slowdown, labour disruptions, or a pullback in cross-border volumes could weigh on results. But for a TFSA investor with a long time horizon, CP is the kind of business that earns its premium by compounding quietly through the slow years and accelerating when conditions turn.
Brookfield Corporation (BN): A Global Compounder With Multiple Ways to Win
Brookfield Corporation (TSX: BN) is the “forever compounder” style TFSA stock. It owns and builds real assets and operating businesses across infrastructure, private credit, and long-duration real asset investing — then recycles capital and reinvests for the next cycle. It’s not a simple one-line story, and that’s exactly why it belongs in an account built for decades.
The 2025 results show the engine running well. Brookfield reported distributable earnings of $6 billion for the year, or $2.54 per share, and distributable earnings before realizations of $5.4 billion, or $2.27 per share, with per-share growth of 11% year over year. It raised its quarterly dividend by 17% to $0.07 per share and repurchased over $1 billion in shares during 2025. The stock carries a market cap around $132.5 billion; traditional P/E ratios can look inflated here because reported earnings include valuation swings, but that’s a feature of the model, not a flaw.
The risks — market drawdowns that slow realizations, higher financing costs, and the complexity that can spook investors in volatile stretches — are worth naming. But steady execution has kept compounding value through prior cycles, and there’s no obvious reason that changes.
Bottom line
A year later, these are still the kinds of TFSA stocks worth holding close. Canadian Utilities offers defensive income and regulated durability. CP offers long-run efficiency gains tied to the real economy. Brookfield offers a global compounding engine with multiple ways to win across cycles.
None of them need a perfect year. They just need time. The question worth sitting with is how many holdings in your TFSA are actually built to use it.
