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CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $81 (Toronto symbol CNR; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 786.4 million; Market cap: $63.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.0; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cn.ca) operates Canada’s largest railway. Its network stretches across the country and through the U.S. Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. The company has agreed to repurchase up to 11.2 million of its shares from a private seller at a discount to the market price. It aims to complete this transaction by September 9, 2016. The move is part of CN’s plan to buy back up to 33.0 million of its common shares, or roughly 5% of the total outstanding, by October 29, 2016. Share buybacks raise earnings per share and other per-share calculations. That gives the remaining shareholders a larger stake in the company....

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $35 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 993.2 million; Market cap: $34.8 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend Yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial (Toronto symbol MFC). In the past few years, the company has expanded its presence in Ireland. In July 2013, it paid $1.75 billion for Irish Life, Ireland’s largest pension manager and life insurance provider. Irish Life recently announced two small acquisitions: it is buying Aviva Health, and increasing its stake in GloHealth from 49% to 100%. The company did not say how much it will pay, but these purchases will let it sell health insurance products to its Irish clients....

TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $55 (Toronto symbol TD; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $104.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.td.com) is the first Canadian bank to use Visa’s new tokenization technology in its mobile banking app. This system uses encrypted “tokens” instead of credit card numbers and other account information. This helps protect clients’ sensitive information from online intruders. It also speeds up mobile payments and other transactions. Better security should encourage more of TD’s customers to do their banking online. That would cut its costs, as electronic transactions are cheaper to process than those in physical branches....

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. (Toronto symbols CTC $197 and CTC.A $135; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 73.5 million; Market cap: $10.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 1.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) owns 498 Canadian Tire stores. They sell automotive, household and sporting goods. Franchisees run most of these outlets. Other operations include 296 gas stations and 91 PartSource auto parts stores. New markets have paid off Canadian Tire has acquired two big specialty retailers in the past few years: Mark’s sells casual and work clothing through 380 stores; and the Forzani Group sells sporting goods and athletic wear through 433 stores, including Sport Chek and Sports Experts....

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $47 (www.snclavalin.com) acquired U.K.-based Kentz Corp. for $2.1 billion in August 2014. Kentz sells engineering and construction services to oil and gas firms. The purchase is helping SNC win more contracts in the Middle East....

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $51 (www.rbi.com) is the world’s third-largest fast-food operator, after McDonald’s and Yum Brands, with 15,003 Burger King outlets and 4,413 Tim Hortons stores in 100 countries. Last year, its affiliate in France acquired the Quick burger chain, which has 509 locations in France, Belgium and other parts of Europe....

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Imperial Oil is selling its remaining Esso gas stations. This will let the company focus on its oil sands operations. These projects will prosper when oil prices recover, and enhance the company’s growth prospects. IMPERIAL OIL $41.25 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $34.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.4%; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated oil company with oil sands projects in Alberta and conventional oil and gas operations across Western Canada. It also operates three refineries. Imperial is now selling its 497 company-owned Esso gas stations to independent operators for $2.8 billion. Following the sale, franchisees will operate all 1,700 Esso stations across Canada....

TRANSCANADA CORP. $49.18 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 709.0 million; Market cap: $34.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.6%; www.transcanada.com) has run into difficulties lately in gaining approvals for new pipelines, including Energy East in Canada and Keystone XL in the U.S. However, the company has moved forward with its proposed acquisiton of Texas-based Columbia Pipeline Group (New York symbol GPCX) for $13 billion U.S. This is a big purchase for TransCanada, which has a market cap of $35.4 billion (Canadian)....

PEMBINA PIPELINE $34.61 (Toronto symbol PPL; Shares outstanding: 373.4 million; Market cap: $12.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.pembina.com) owns pipelines that carry half of Alberta’s conventional oil and almost all of B.C.’s oil. It also carries 30% of Western Canada’s natural gas liquids (NGLs). Pembina owns extensive facilities to extract, process and store NGLs, as well as natural gas processing plants. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, the company’s cash flow per share jumped 57.0%, to $0.77 from $0.49 a year earlier. New plants starting up boosted volumes at its NGL extraction business....

ALGONQUIN POWER & UTILITIES CORP. $10.72 (Toronto symbol AQN; Shares outstanding: 255.8 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.8%; www.algonquinpower.com) has tripled in size in the past three years, mostly through acquisitions. The company’s regulated utility businesses now provide water, electricity and gas to over 560,000 customers, up sharply from 120,000 three years ago. Its hydroelectric, thermal energy, solar and wind plants generate 1,050 megawatts, up from 460. Emera (Toronto symbol EMA) owns 20.9% of Algonquin. It is a recommendation of The Successful Investor, our conservative growth advisory....

INNERGEX RENEWABLE ENERGY $13.82 (Toronto symbol INE; Shares outstanding: 104.0 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield 4.6%; www.innergex.com) has acquired eight wind power projects in northern France from a German company for $137 million. The purchase includes seven operating plants with 87 megawatts of generating capacity, plus a 44-megawatt project now under construction. All power generated at the eight plants is already sold under long-term power-purchase contracts averaging 13 years in length. The acquisition is Innergex’s first in Europe. It sees France as a big growth market and plans to buy or build more plants....

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $41.71 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 612.3 million; Market cap: $25.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.sunlife.ca) sells life insurance, savings, retirement and pension products to individuals and corporations. The company has $891.3 billion of assets under management and mainly operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. It’s also expanding in Asia. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Sun Life’s earnings per share rose 7.4%, to $0.87 from $0.81. The company continues to diversify in the U.S. At the same time, it’s focusing on highly profitable niche markets with low capital requirements....

MANULIFE FINANCIAL CORP. $18.04 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $35.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.manulife.ca) sells life and other related forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment management services. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Manulife’s earnings per share dropped sharply, to $0.11 from $0.33. That was largely due to writedowns in the value of its own investments in oil and gas stocks. However, excluding one-time items, per-share earnings rose 16.7%, to $0.42 from $0.36. The company continues to expand in growing Asian markets. Right now, about 40% of its insurance premiums come from that region....

ISHARES CHINA LARGE-CAP ETF $33.03 (New York symbol FXI; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) China 50 Index, which is made up of the 50 largest, most-liquid Chinese stocks. Top holdings include Tencent Holdings, China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Ping An Insurance. The ETF has an MER of 0.74%. Chinese stocks are down sharply since last summer. National leader Xi Jinping seems focused on shoring up the Communist party and the Chinese stock market, rather than strengthening the Chinese economy. Meanwhile China still has strong long-term growth potential, but needs to get its economy back on track....

VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $107.44 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) U.S. Large Cap Growth Index. It’s a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of big U.S. companies. This Vanguard ETF has an MER of just 0.09%. The $46.8 billion fund holds Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon.com, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Walt Disney. Other top holdings include Philip Morris International, Comcast, Visa, Gilead Sciences and Oracle Corp. Its breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology, 23.9%; Consumer Services, 23.0%; Health Care, 14.2%; Financials, 12.5%; Industrials, 11.5%; Consumer Goods, 10.9%; Oil and Gas, 2.7%; Materials, 1.0%; and Telecom Services, 0.3%....

VANGUARD FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ETF $34.00 (New York symbol VWO; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) Emerging Index. It’s made up of the common stock of companies in developing countries. The fund’s MER is just 0.15%. The top holdings of Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets include Taiwan Semiconductor (Taiwan: computer chips), Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Naspers Ltd. (South Africa: media), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan: electronics), Infosys (India: information technology) and Housing Development Finance (India: banking). The breakdown by country for this $45.1 billion fund is as follows: China, 27.3%; Taiwan, 15.9%; India, 12.0%; South Africa, 8.1%; Brazil, 6.7%; Mexico, 5.5%; Malaysia, 4.6%; Russia, 4.3%; Thailand, 3.0%; Indonesia, 3.0%; Philippines, 2.0%; Poland, 1.5%; Turkey, 1.8%; and others, 5.8%....

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $170.25 (Toronto symbol CP; Shares outstanding: 153.0 million; Market cap: $26.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 0.8%; www.cpr.ca) has agreed to sell a parcel of land—the Arbutus Corridor—to the City of Vancouver. Canadian Pacific stopped running trains through the Arbutus Corridor in 2001. Since then, the company has considered several options to re-develop the property. These included building a facility to store railcars. The municipal government opposed those plans. The sale price of $55 million is small next to the $1.6 billion, or $10.10 a share, that CP earned in 2015. But the deal also gives the company additional payments linked to future development of the property....

ARC RESOURCES $18.38 (Toronto symbol ARX; Shares outstanding: 348.3 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; Dividend yield: 3.3%; www.arcresources.com) produces oil and natural gas in Western Canada. Its average daily output of 119,243 barrels of oil equivalent is 66% gas and 34% oil. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, ARC’s cash flow per share dropped 26.6%, to $0.58 from $0.79 a year earlier. Production increased 1.1%, but its realized oil price fell 32.1%. Gas prices declined 37.6%. Like many oil and gas producers, ARC is cutting exploration and development spending. In 2016, it will devote $390.0 million to this purpose. That’s down 29.1% from $550.0 in 2015....

CRESCENT POINT ENERGY $17.64 (Toronto symbol CPG; Shares outstanding: 504.9 million; Market cap: $8.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend y ield: 2.0%; www.crescentpointenergy.com) produces oil and natural gas in Western Canada, with a focus on its Bakken light oil development in southeastern Saskatchewan. Its output is 90% oil and 10% gas. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Crescent Point’s cash flow fell 13.3%, to $496.7 million from $572.8 million a year earlier. The company raised its daily output by 14.5%, but lower oil and gas prices offset that increase. Cash flow per share dropped 23.4%, to $0.98 from $1.28, because Crescent Point issued shares to pay for acquisitions. They include the $1.5 billion the company paid for Legacy Oil + Gas in June 2015....