The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Sun Life Financial is one of the best dividend-paying stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Globe's Norman Rothery, writing in a summary of top Canadian dividend payers, says that Sun Life is a financial services company that provides life and health insurance and asset management. The company makes its home in Toronto and increased its dividend per share by 8.3 per cent over the past year. It pays a 4.3-per-cent dividend yield and trades near 11 times forward 12-month earnings estimates. Dividend stocks have a special place in the Canadian stock market and are beloved by risk-averse investors. It is easy to see why because, as a group, they have provided outsized returns and avoided the worst of some of the biggest market crashes since the turn of the century. A simple dividend portfolio composed of the largest 200 stocks on the TSX would have gained an average of 11 per cent annually since the end of 1999 to the end of January, 2024, when rebalanced monthly. In comparison, the Canadian market's main benchmark gained an average of 6.6 per cent annually over the same period.