Illustration by Daria Lada
It was a year that raised Canadian elbows and Canadian stocks alike. Considering 2025 saw the country’s trade, sovereignty, and economic viability come under threat, it didn’t turn out half bad. There were redemption arcs for once-fallen domestic champions such as Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bombardier Inc., while the Toronto Stock Exchange somehow managed to put up one of its best years on record – proof that the stock market has a twisted sense of humour. But let’s not forget to pour one out for the casualties of the trade war, such as Algoma Steel Group Inc. and Spin Master Corp. Here in The Globe and Mail’s year-end roundup of the best and worst of investing in 2025 are the stocks that slayed and the tickers that toppled.
Bombardier Inc. (STAR)
The stock market can be a great place to settle grievances. Perhaps the big banks have raised your ire with their hidden fees and service charges. One way to wrest back some gains, both moral and monetary, is to invest in their shares. Tired of rising food prices? Own a small piece of the grocery chains. Bitter that your dreams didn’t come true and a life of wealth and extravagance will never be yours? Bombardier may be the stock for you. The private aviation business is booming, and Bombardier, which nearly went bankrupt a decade ago, has a new lease on life. In July, the company announced an agreement with an undisclosed buyer to deliver 50 Challenger and Global jets, with the option for an additional 70 aircraft, which would push the deal value to around US$4-billion. Demand is strong, the order backlog is large, the company is delivering on its commitments and its stock is soaring. Unlike us common folk, who can only look up to the skies and wonder what might have been. – Tim Shufelt
Toronto-Dominion Bank (STAR)
Canada witnessed some improbable comebacks in 2025. Consider the Toronto Blue Jays, who clawed their way from last place the previous season to come within inches of winning the World Series. Or the tariff-rattled Canadian economy, which rebounded with remarkably strong third-quarter growth after a second-quarter contraction. And then there was TD Bank. After getting hammered by its U.S. money-laundering fiasco in 2024, TD’s shares went on a Jays-style heater. Even as regulators slapped an asset cap on its American retail arm, the bank’s wealth management, investment banking, trading and Canadian lending operations kept posting impressive returns. Under new chief executive officer Raymond Chun, the bank slashed costs and unloaded its 10.1-per-cent stake in U.S. broker Charles Schwab for about $20-billion, funnelling the proceeds into share buybacks and reinvesting in the business. The year culminated with TD reporting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.9-billion, up 22 per cent from a year earlier, and raising its dividend. For TD, a long-time Jays sponsor, it was as thrilling as a Vladdy Jr. home run in October. – John Heinzl
S&P/TSX Composite Index (STAR)
Remember back in February, when Bombardier punched Tesla Inc. in the face, and then Royal Bank of Canada passed the puck to the high slot, where Shopify Inc. one-timed it over Microsoft Corp.’s shoulder to win the 4 Nations Stock Face-Off? I might be mixing things up, but honestly, the whole year is a blur of Canadian patriotism and anti-American anger. The important thing is, in the stock market, as in hockey, we beat the Yanks. It was an improbably stellar year for Canadian stocks, one of the best on record, in fact. By now we all know the stock market and the real economy are two very different beasts. Never has that been more apparent than in 2025, when Canadian prosperity came under attack and the future of the economy put in grave danger. Most of the gains in domestic equities came from the run-up in gold prices and the performance of the big banks, but it’s best not to dissect moral victories. Let’s hope there’s another one coming on the ice in February at the Olympics in Milan, Italy. Canada’s elbows may be down on the tariff front, but we can bloody well get them up in the corners. – TS
Palantir Technologies Inc. (STAR)
For most people, the word “psychopath” conjures up the Hannibal Lecter sort, but it just as often describes executives in upper management. Consider Alex Karp, the jittery, sword-waving billionaire CEO of what some call the “scariest company in the world.” Palantir’s name comes from the stones in the Lord of the Rings books that are ultimately used to spy on and control the people of Middle Earth. On literal Earth, Palantir’s software is used for things such as locating immigrants for deportation or collecting vast amounts of data on Americans. If you want to be chilled to your core, watch an interview with Mr. Karp, in which he frequently talks of fear, violence and killing people. But no one ever said fear doesn’t sell. Palantir’s revenue is on track for a 54-per-cent increase this fiscal year, with free cash flow of around US$2-billion. If your adviser has been saying you need to diversify into stocks that scare the living hell out of you, Palantir is the name for you. – TS
Cameco Corp. (STAR)
Say what you will about oil, at least it never spawned a prehistoric sea monster that breathes radioactive fire and wreaks havoc on inner cities. Godzilla has been a stand-in for misgivings about nuclear technology and the potential for catastrophe. After the Fukushima meltdown in Japan in 2011, several countries scaled back nuclear programs or even phased them out. But nuclear is undergoing a mass reappraisal as part of the green energy transition. Around the world, nuclear projects are being green lit. In October, the U.S. government signed an agreement with Westinghouse Electric Co., which is partly-owned by Canada’s Cameco, to build up to eight reactors valued at US$80-billion or more. Like many countries, the United States has an aging fleet of reactors that need to be refurbished or replaced. With energy demand on the rise, a nuclear comeback could kick off a major investment cycle throughout the nuclear supply chain. Nuclear proponents have long said the technology is crucial to reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, if we are to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change. Not necessarily the stomping kind of outcome that roars “SKREEONK” and chews up skyscrapers, but still pretty nasty. – TS
Robinhood Markets Inc. (STAR)
An old-school investing process might involve sifting through research, finding chart patterns and checking out the odd balance sheet. Today, all you need to do is to look deep inside yourself and ask, “Do I think Elon Musk is going to tweet more than 460 times next week?” You better be confident because if you’re wrong, you lose it all. But if it hits, it pays 100-to-1. Last fall, Robinhood launched a prediction markets hub that lets users bet on yes-or-no outcomes, and business is booming. Contract volume has at least doubled each quarter and the 2.5 billion event contracts traded in October alone exceeded the company’s third-quarter total. Predictions are shaping up to be the next big growth driver for a company riding the wave of retail interest in investing, gambling and the all the stuff blurring the line between the two. Robinhood is on track to post revenue growth of more than 50 per cent in fiscal 2025. Want a piece of that action? You could buy Robinhood’s stock, like a dinosaur. Or you could step into the future and roll the dice on a contract that pays off if the company beats the Street on its next quarterly earnings report. All or nothing, baby! – TS
S&P 500 Index (STAR)
Have you heard the good news? Artificial intelligence will soon transform every business, cure every disease, and usher in an era of unlimited scientific discovery and prosperity. Not right away, mind you. For now, we’ll have to make do with AI-generated videos of Donald Trump dropping poop from an airplane. In a world awash in AI hype, nothing captured the breathless excitement better than the surging S&P 500. The U.S. benchmark soared for a third consecutive year, buoyed by the Magnificent Seven tech stocks – Nvidia Corp., Apple Inc., Microsoft, Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Tesla and Amazon.com Inc. – that together account for about 35 per cent of the index. It’s too early to say whether the gazillions of dollars poured into AI chips and data centres will produce the transformative changes Silicon Valley is promising, but doubts began to emerge as the year came to a close. Shares of Oracle Corp. tumbled in December – a sign investors are worried about the company’s debt-fuelled buildout of AI data centres that have yet to produce a return. Underlining the growing skepticism, several other tech giants also ended the year on a soft note. With a price-to-earnings ratio in the high 20s, the S&P 500 seemed to be priced to perfection. If AI brings us anything less than that, the Magnificent Seven could turn into the Mangled Seven. – JH
Gold (STAR)
Getting your hands on some gold used to be hard. You had to build a large boat, sail it across the Atlantic and massacre countless Incas and Aztecs. Nowadays, you can order an ounce of gold from Costco and have it shipped to your door. Progress. Mankind has been fascinated by gold for thousands of years, but in 2025 demand exploded as inflation, trade wars and geopolitical tensions prompted investors to load up on bullion as a safe-haven asset. Further stoking demand, central banks in China, India and elsewhere bought large quantities of the precious metal to diversify their reserves away from a weakening U.S. dollar and protect against financial risk. With retail buyers now able to get their gold fix instantly through exchange-traded funds, the rally inevitably attracted speculators hoping to ride the metal’s rapid ascent. All of this tightened the supply of physical gold and sent prices soaring to a record high of more than US$4,500 an ounce. The best part: Nobody had to die. Progress indeed. – JH
Groupe Dynamite Inc. (STAR)
Fashion retailing is notoriously fickle. Chains that once ruled the mall – think American Apparel, The Limited and Aeropostale – are now as relevant as leg warmers and bulky shoulder pads. One notable exception: Groupe Dynamite. Since opening its first store in Montreal in 1975, the company has expanded to more than 300 Garage and Dynamite locations across Canada and the U.S., catering to Gen Z and millennial women seeking trendy, affordable clothing. Thanks to effective social media marketing, growing e-commerce sales and a knack for staying on top of trends, recent results have been, well, dynamite: For the third quarter ended Nov. 1, same-store sales soared about 32 per cent, prompting the company to raise its full-year forecast and declare a special dividend of $2.30 a share. Gross margin, meanwhile, rose to an impressive 66.1 per cent, reflecting strong inventory management and limited markdowns. Investors are taking notice: Since going public in November, 2024, the share price has more than quadrupled. The stock is trading like a must-have item now, but will it end up on the discount rack like so many retailers before it? C’est impossible. – JH
Dollarama Inc. (STAR)
Every year, investors could come up with myriad reasons not to invest in Dollarama: The shares are too expensive! The dividend is too small! There are already seven Dollaramas within a one-kilometre radius of my house – they can’t possibly open any more! Yet, virtually every year, the stock proved the doubters wrong. Since the chain went public in 2009, it has posted 16 annual gains and just one drop (in 2018), racking up a total return of more than 6,500 per cent in that time. Put another way, an initial $10,000 investment would be worth about $665,000 today. Think of all the 95-cent chocolate bars, $3 spatulas and $2.25 packs of AA batteries that would buy. With consumers feeling the pinch of tariffs and inflation, they had even more reason to shop at Dollarama. For the third quarter ended Nov. 2, same-store sales rose 6 per cent, prompting the company to hike its full-year forecast. Even as Dollarama continued to add to its roughly 1,600 stores in Canada, the company in July acquired Australia’s largest discount retailer, The Reject Shop, with about 400 stores. Its majority-owned Dollarcity chain in Latin America, meanwhile, recently opened its 700th location. Will 2026 be the year Dollarama finally hits the wall? History suggests otherwise. – JH
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (DOG)
Lululemon investors kept lu-lu-losing money in 2025. Once one of Canada’s great growth stocks, the Vancouver-based apparel retailer battled tariffs, inflation, tumbling consumer confidence and, perhaps most important, growing competition in the athleisure market it once owned. With newer, often cheaper brands such as Athleta and Vuori grabbing market share, Lululemon’s same-store sales in North America started to fall in 2024, and the decline only gathered momentum in 2025. In September, the company cut its full-year earnings guidance for a second time, sending the stock to a double-digit loss and prompting a wave of analyst downgrades. Something had to give. In December, the retailer announced that Calvin McDonald will step down as CEO at the end of January after more than seven years at the helm. Chip Wilson, Lululemon’s founder and a major shareholder, wasted no time in blaming the board and Mr. McDonald for the retailer’s woes, blasting the company for its “complacency” and lack of product innovation. With Mr. Wilson pushing Lululemon to bring in new directors to lead the CEO search and activist investor Elliott Investment Management LP acquiring a stake of more than US$1-billion, you might say people were lu-lu-losing patience. – JH
Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (DOG)
Imagine you are God, designing a civilization from scratch. On day one, you make the people. On day two, you invent cool stuff for them to use, such as computers, the internet and reasonably priced home espresso machines. On day three, you have to figure out where all the people are going to work. Would you make them commute for hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic, burn money on gasoline and parking, and squeeze into a metal box that whisks them to a cubicle in the sky? Of course not. With the technology you invented, it would be more efficient to let them work from home. Therein lies the challenge for office landlords such as Allied Properties: As much as some companies are trying to drag their employees back to their prepandemic office routines, the alternative is so much more appealing. You can see it in Allied’s struggling unit price, in its failure to meet its year-end occupancy target of 90 per cent (it ended the third quarter at 87.4 per cent) and in its 60-per-cent distribution cut in early December. Maybe God doesn’t want people to return to the office. – JH
Strategy Inc. (DOG)
Michael Saylor, a cryptocurrency evangelist never short on hyperbole, once described bitcoin as “a swarm of cyber hornets … feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy.” But as investors in his “bitcoin treasury” company discovered, those hornets have a nasty sting. Mr. Saylor’s plan was as simple as it was reckless: Take a modest software company (formerly MicroStrategy), issue boatloads of common shares, preferred shares and convertible debt, and use the proceeds to buy billions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin – a speculative asset with no intrinsic value and stomach-churning volatility. The leveraged wager worked beautifully as long as bitcoin kept rising and Strategy could comfortably service the dividends and interest on all that freshly minted equity and debt. But once bitcoin began to wobble, Strategy’s share price buckled. From its July peak of US$457.22 to its December trough, the stock collapsed about 66 per cent. In the end, the company conceded it may have to sell part of its enormous bitcoin hoard – the same stash it once claimed it would hold for the long term. Turns out the hornets weren’t feeding on the fire of truth after all. They were feeding on investors’ gullibility. – JH
TFI International Inc. (DOG)
One has to wonder what Alain Bédard was thinking. With Donald Trump’s tariffs and 51st-state threats sparking a patriotic backlash north of the border, the CEO of Montreal-based TFI announced in February that Canada’s largest trucking firm would change its legal incorporation to the U.S. Lauding it as “the best place to be in the world in terms of business,” he noted that 70 per cent of TFI’s operations and about half of its shareholders were already located there. The blowback was fierce, especially within Quebec. “The company did not inform us of its intentions, and we will express to them our displeasure,” said a spokesperson for the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of TFI’s biggest shareholders. Just four days later, TFI abruptly reversed the decision, citing “feedback from shareholders.” But the flip-flop did nothing to help TFI’s struggling share price. The stock sank amid a slump in North American freight volumes and a string of disappointing quarterly results, fanned by tariff and economic uncertainty. As the year drew to a close, the stock seemed to have the makings of a comeback, but there was still a steep, icy grade to climb to get back to its previous highs. – JH
Target Corp. (DOG)
Most people would prefer to forget the COVID-19 pandemic. Not Target shareholders. With customers stocking up on toilet paper, groceries and household goods, the chain’s sales and stock price soared. But as the pandemic faded, Target’s problems started. The weakening economy caused shoppers to pull back on discretionary purchases such as designer fashions and home goods. There were boycotts, first from the right, and then the left, over Target’s LGBTQ merchandise and the chain’s decision to back away from diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Above all, there was the 800-pound gorilla known as Walmart Inc., which beefed up its apparel and home goods assortments to complement its grocery dominance. In 2025, Target’s sales headed for their third consecutive annual decline, and the stock was down more than 60 per cent from its 2021 high. In August, the chain announced that 20-year company veteran Michael Fiddelke would succeed Brian Cornell as CEO, effective Feb. 1, 2026. Mr. Fiddelke, the chain’s chief operating officer, vowed to “move faster, much faster” to improve the quality, value and style of merchandise and invest in technology. If he doesn’t produce results, he could be the next executive with a target on his back. – JH
Moderna Inc. (DOG)
On one hand, several studies have concluded the COVID-19 vaccine saved many lives, possibly millions. On the other hand, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called it the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” As a questionably qualified Health Secretary, Mr. Kennedy is doing his best to bring about a post-vaccine reality in which we don’t need companies like Moderna any more. Moderna became a household name during the pandemic, when its vaccine helped bring the world out of lockdown, bestowing the company with a market capitalization as big as US$200-billion in the process. But Moderna had no other commercially available products, leaving it dangerously vulnerable to a decline in demand for COVID-19 shots. Enter Mr. Kennedy, who has removed recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, cancelled US$500-million in mRNA vaccine research and withdrawn more than US$700-million in funding for Moderna to develop a bird flu vaccine. If that sends a shiver down your spine, that’s probably just the measles acting up. A little raw milk will sort you right out. – TS
Constellation Software Inc. (DOG)
A partial list of the most shocking endings to historic winning streaks: Napoleon’s defeat in Russia in 1812 after two decades of battlefield dominance. Ken Jennings losing in Final Jeopardy! after 74 consecutive wins. And Constellation Software’s stock tanking after an unprecedented 20-year run-up in share price. Since it went public in 2006, up to its peak in May, Constellation’s stock rose by roughly 30,000 per cent, or 35 per cent annually. The stock had just one negative year in that time – in 2022, when the entire tech sector corrected. Now Constellation is mired in its worst sell-off to date and investors are spooked about the threat posed by AI. Constellation has amassed a giant roster of small software companies with niche products for specific lines of business, such as marinas and fitness clubs. The concern is that AI will render these products obsolete by making do-it-yourself alternatives viable with tools such as ChatGPT. And with that, a glorious streak ended. Is there another act ahead for Constellation? There was for Ken Jennings, who parlayed his run into a permanent gig hosting Jeopardy! Napoleon, one the other hand, was exiled to a remote island in the South Atlantic where he died in a rat-infested bungalow. – TS
Campbell’s Co. (DOG)
When one of your own executives is caught on tape describing your products as “shit food for poor people,” perhaps that’s a hint your company is somewhat misaligned with its customer base. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a trend that Campbell’s is on the right side of. Tariffs have raised input costs on things such as imported steel and aluminum used to make canned goods. Campbell’s recently hiked prices, pushing inflation-weary consumers to cheaper generic brands. Other consumers are shifting toward fresh food and less-processed alternatives. Even the rise of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic have weighed on the company’s snack division. Plus, Canadians boycotting American products have had another reason to take a pass on Campbell’s, which closed its Toronto-area factory in 2018, but continued to slap a “Designed in Canada” label on its U.S.-made soups sold in Canadian stores. Nice try, but we can make our own shitty food, thank you very much. – TS
Algoma Steel Group Inc. (DOG)
A lot typically has to go wrong to bring about the downfall of a multibillion-dollar company. Strategic missteps, obsolescence, the business cycle, bad luck – that kind of thing. In this case, the culprit is one belligerent man in orange makeup and a Brioni suit. When Donald Trump slapped 50-per-cent tariffs on imported steel on the dubious basis of national security, he set the stage for the collapse of Canada’s last remaining independent steelmaker. The company is now fighting for its survival by reorienting its business toward Canadian customers, while staying afloat with several hundred million dollars in government loans. With any luck, Algoma will be around to support the nation-building projects now taking shape, no thanks to Mr. Trump. There are those who say he did us a favour by shaking Canada from its complacency. That’s like thanking your spouse for cheating on you because your home life had gotten a little too stable and secure. The only salute Canadians owe Mr. Trump is the middle-finger kind. – TS
Spin Master Corp. (DOG)
Hey parents. If you’re finding it difficult talking about the tariff wars with your children, you’re not alone. Geopolitics can be confusing for little ones. Why not find some common ground in a Paw Patrol plot line? “Hey kiddo, you know how Mayor Humdinger is the meanest, pettiest mayor who ever lived? Well, imagine he convinced all the kitties in Foggy Bottom that the pups over in Adventure Bay had been ripping them off for years. Then he starts targeting the pups, trying to weaken them. Not with one of his typical fake emergency schemes, but with something called unilateral import tariffs.” Spin Master, the owner of the Paw Patrol franchise, knows the torment of these tariffs well. The pain has mostly come through toy sales, as U.S. retailers have tried to dodge tariffs while consumers have recoiled from higher toy prices. For the year, Spin Master is projected to post a revenue decline of 6 per cent, and a drop in adjusted earnings per share of 26 per cent. But rest assured, kids, that nasty Humdinger won’t be mayor forever. – TS