The Globe and Mail attempts to identify Canadian stocks with attractive and growing dividends and the capacity to continue paying these dividends even in the event of an economic downturn in its Friday, March 15, edition. The Globe's guest columnist Peter Ashton writes in the Number Cruncher column that he only considered stock with a market capitalization of $1-billion or more, thus limiting his search to the largest and most stable stocks in the Canadian market. His picks had to have dividend yields of 3 per cent or more and a five-year history of growing dividend payments by 10 per cent or more annualized. Lastly, he screened for a dividend coverage ratio of 150 per cent or more. The only resources stock to make Mr. Ashton's list is Canadian Natural Resources. Mr. Ashton says Canadian Natural has an attractive dividend with a 3.8-per-cent yield and a 15.1-per-cent five-year average dividend growth rate. Although the past year has been challenging for many energy stocks, Canadian Natural's strong dividend yield makes this stock suitable for investors seeking income and exposure to the Canadian energy sector. His other picks are Manulife Financial, NFI Group, iA Financial, Atco, Intertape Polymer, Domtar and Aecon Group.