Good Mornin’

The weekend carried a bit of everything here at the Henderson house…dance competition, spring clean-up, ice cream breaks, a few drives in the Scout II, an exciting Masters, and the quiet pull of an ever-evolving news cycle running in the background.

Movement. Pause.  Movement again.

At some point, I found myself in the garage with some classic Muddy Waters playing. The blues has a way of doing that, meeting the moment without forcing it.  And it reminded me of something simple: even the most ordinary moments run on systems we rarely notice… until they’re asked to adapt.

Lately, it feels like we’re all moving through a bit of muddy water.

• Geopolitical tension
• Energy uncertainty
• Shifting alliances

Markets trying to make sense of it all in real time. And when visibility shortens, the gap between intention and conviction widens.  Call it the Delta.

The Delta

In the early 1940s, blues legend Muddy Waters left the Mississippi Delta and headed north to Chicago.  And somewhere along the way, the sound changed.

Acoustic became electric, porch songs became club anthems.  The music got louder, heavier… evolving for a different environment.  The essence didn’t change., the blues was still the blues, it was just adapting.  And that evolution didn’t stop there.

Chicago gave way to rock ’n’ roll (thank you Chuck Berry)

Then British reinterpretations (thank you The Rolling Stones)

Then distortion, amplification, scale (thank you Hendrix)

Different eras.  Different instruments.  Different audiences.

Same foundation.

The form evolves; the function endures.

I’ve always loved the blues. Lately, I’ve found myself sharing some of that history with my kids…how the sound changed when the environment did, and why it had to.  It’s a simple idea, an enduring one: systems don’t resist change, they express it.

Infrastructure Investing

Back in 2016, I wrote an article for our friends at the Canadian Moneysaver Magazine, looking at infrastructure through a different lens….yes, it was a younger, no grey hair 36-year-old lens, but it was a different investing environment too.  Aging roads….crumbling systems…and the opportunity that came with rebuilding them.  At the time, the story was clear: The world had underinvested in physical infrastructure, and capital was stepping in to rebuild it.

Fast forward to today, I suggest the story hasn’t changed, but the environment has.  And just like the blues… when conditions shift, the form evolves.  Not by choice, by necessity.  The environment changes, and the system responds.

Infrastructure used to be tangible.  You could see it. Drive on it. Build around it.

Now, much of it is invisible.

• Data centers
• Semiconductor supply chains
• Energy systems powering AI compute
• Fiber networks and cloud architecture

We’ve moved from concrete to code.

The principle hasn’t changed: Infrastructure enables everything else.

AI Investment

It’s becoming clear now…the buildout behind artificial intelligence is gnarly.

Hyperscalers are committing hundreds of billions.  Data centers are becoming the new railroads, and energy demand is accelerating in ways only beginning to be understood.

• Massive capital deployment
• Data centers as foundational assets
• Energy demand as the hidden constraint

AI isn’t just software.  It’s infrastructure just written in a different language.

Energy & Global Oil Dynamics

Here this morning, as I write this, energy systems are under pressure, quietly at first, then all at once.  Given the weekend Iran-US peace talks seemed to end without a deal, leaving two-week ceasefire in doubt One of the clearest pressure points sits in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly a quarter of global seaborne oil flows.

• A single chokepoint driving global sensitivity
• Disruptions tightening supply instantly
• Insurance and transport strain amplifying effects

We’ve seen this play out in real time over the last few weeks.  When that artery tightens, the system responds immediately.  Oil pushes toward $100–$120 and the curve shifts into backwardation.  In my view, the message is simple: This isn’t a long-term shortage…it’s a right-now constraint.

And just like the blues… pressure doesn’t silence the system.  It changes the sound.

HALO Assets

As investors, this is where HALO assets come back into focus: “Hard Assets. Low Obsolescence.”

Not as a label, but as a solid filter.

Assets that don’t need to be reinvented every cycle.  Assets that remain essential, even when conditions change.

Pipelines. Utilities. Transportation networks.  And increasingly, the digital backbone beneath it all.

Different instruments….same role. They carry the current.

My article back in 2016 highlighted something simple:  If you want to understand where capital is going, watch the institutions.  Not what they say, what they consistently do.

Endowments like Yale and Harvard.  Pension plans like CPP Investments and Ontario Teachers’.  They don’t trade the noise, they build the system.

• 10–20%+ allocations to real assets
• Direct ownership
• Long-duration alignment

Why? Good question…..because infrastructure offers something increasingly rare: Durability.

For us, the opportunity is clear.  We are rebuilding aging systems, building entirely new ones, and reinforcing global energy networks, all at the same time.

But there’s tension in that.

Capital is abundant, deals are competitive, pricing discipline can erode.  Like any investment, outcomes depend on:

• Structure
• Access
• Discipline

Not all infrastructure is created equal, and not all exposure is the same.  For us, this is where discipline quietly does its work.  We never have chased infrastructure as a theme.  We’re underwriting it as a system.

Focusing on assets that sit beneath the narrative…not above it.

Where cash flows are durable, demand is structural, and pricing power isn’t dependent on sentiment.  Positioned where capital is required… not just where it’s fashionable, because in environments like this, protection and participation are not opposing ideas.

They’re the same decision, made with clarity.

The Blues

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — Alan Watts

The blues never disappeared.

It just kept evolving.

• From Delta to Chicago
• From analog to electric
• From underground to global

Infrastructure is doing the same.

• From concrete to code
• From roads to data
• From stability to strain… and back again

In calm markets, infrastructure is taken for granted.  In stressed markets, it becomes the signal.  The question isn’t whether the system evolves.

It always does.

The question is whether we move with it.  The sound changes…the current never does.

Have a wonderful week….and if you feel inclined, throw on some Muddy Waters or Robert Johnson in the background and reflect on the wealth journey ahead.

Slower. Wiser. Richer.

Be well and enjoy the moments,

Henderson Family Wealth of RBC Dominion Securities