A once dominant dividend strategy stumbles – can it recover?

Persistently high interest rates have been hard on some bedrock investing strategies. We've learned in the past few years that bonds are useless as a hedge against falling stocks when rates are climbing, and that blue chip dividend stocks can be vulnerable as well. This latter point can be seen clearly in recent performance numbers for the Canadian Essentials Portfolio, a grouping of 10 stocks in the financial services, industrials, utilities and pipelines sectors. The CEP was created many years ago by a retired political science professor named Mike Henderson. Mr. Henderson and I connected for a 2010 column, and…