Canadian trusts and high-yielding corporations are the place to be during this tumultuous period, despite the negative background hum from fearful investors. The patient will be rewarded.

Stephen Harper has taken some well-earned shots for early blunders. But overall this prime minister’s government has been very pro-investor.

The closer we get to 2011 the more it becomes clear that Canada generally is positioned for solid growth for the next decade and that its high-yielding equities will build substantial wealth for investors.

Signs of the Apocalypse abound. What else is new? As long as underlying businesses stay healthy, stocks will eventually recover.

Since the beginning of the year, the loonie has surged from a value of 95 US cents to near parity. With the Bank of Canada likely to end its quantitative easing sooner rather than later, those gains will mount, boosting the US dollar value of Canadian investments and distributions.

Stronger commodity prices should keep all things Canadian on the upside in 2010. The approaching end game on trust conversions to corporations, however, will likely have the greatest influence on share prices in the near term.

A majority of investors on both sides of the border still wrongfully assume that 2011 taxation spells doomsday for all remaining income trusts, great and small.

Despite an inauspicious beginning, 2009 turned out to be a banner year for the Canadian Edge Portfolio, with the Conservative Holdings returning 65 percent and the Aggressive Holdings 66 percent.

Where underlying businesses have remained strong, converting trusts have elected to avoid cutting distributions. Conversely, trusts bashed by the recession have basically used the excuse of converting to slash their payouts.

Ironically, the Canadian edge is even greater after taking into consideration the gains former trusts have realized after formally converting into corporations.