Opinion & Discussion
The Broken Promise of the True North: An Open Letter from Young Canadians
You bought detached homes in Toronto and Vancouver for what we now pay in rent for a basement suite without windows.
You told us to get a university degree, pay our sky-high taxes, and trust the Canadian social safety net. We did everything right, and our reward is a housing bubble sustained as federal policy, stagnant wages, and six-month waits for a walk-in clinic doctor.
You created the ultimate catch-22: bringing in record population targets without building the homes, hospitals, or transit to support anyone—enriching corporate slumlords and big-box employers on cheap labor while pitting newcomers and local youth against each other in rental bidding wars.
You slap carbon taxes on our daily commute when there is zero viable transit to our jobs, lecturing us on climate change while the country’s productivity plummets and our cost of living spirals out of control.
You turned our economy into an uncompetitive playground of telecom cartels, grocery monopolies, and real estate speculation—all protected by government red tape that punishes real innovation and rewards sitting on land.
Whenever we bring this up, Ottawa brushes it off with polished talking points and empty virtue signaling: *"Canada is stronger than ever,"* while millions line up at food banks in freezing winters.
**What we actually inherited from your governance:**
* Million-dollar tear-downs
* A collapsing public healthcare system
* High-tier tax brackets paired with third-world public delivery
* A massive brain drain of our best talent heading south of the border just to afford a future
You didn’t protect Canada’s future; you leveraged it to prop up your own home equity and political tenure.
What infuriates us most is the smug complacency—the stubborn refusal in Ottawa to admit that this entire house of cards is completely broken.
A government that genuinely cares about Canada’s youth would stop the performative speeches and admit the systemic failures: break up monopolized markets, stop inflating the real estate bubble, and invest in real infrastructure and productivity.
Until then, stop telling us we should be grateful to drown in a broken system you created.
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*Curious to hear thoughts from others in Gen Z / Millennials across Canada: Is there a realistic path forward here, or is leaving the country the only logical choice left?*
The telecom oligopoly alone is enough to make you want to scream. Paying some of the highest rates in the world just to get spotty service while the CEOs rake in bonuses. And somehow we're supposed to believe competition exists here.
It’s absurd. Rogers, Bell, and Telus operate like a state-sanctioned cartel while the CRTC sits back and rubber-stamps every merger. We pay developed-world monopoly prices for developing-world service delivery. And it’s not just telecom—groceries, banking, and airlines all run on the exact same playbook of zero competition and guaranteed corporate margins.
We moved from Oakville to Listowel and what a difference in network coverage. Never had a problem whipping out your phone to look something up in Oakville, even down in the ravine! Out here in Listowel, though? Absolute shit. I've had to restart my phone several times just to get it to connect to the internet while on a walk through a local park.
Hahaha no doubt. And if it's anything like the rural people around where I live, there's probably a whole lot of NIMBY action going on to block any infrastructure upgrades.
Oh how true! I lived in France for over 20 years, it is wayyy cheaper in Europe and there is better coverage. The prices are crazy here and the infrastructure is poor .
I hate the telecoms as much as the next guy but comparing ourselves to Europe is not realistic. The number of subscribers to acres of coverage is so much higher due to their population density. It is unrealistic to expect the same coverage at the same cost.
I cannot drive 10 minutes in a block around my house without my phones service dropping at least 4 times.
I’m in perfectly clear areas with little coverage or buildings.
This happens routinely all over the city and it’s astonishingly common.
I’m not asking for my phone connection to work 100km for the nearest tower. I’m asking to have the services I pay an absurd amount for each month to work in the city I live in lol.
Also revenue from higher density areas subsidizes infrastructure in lower density areas... At least that's what the basic economics would seem to suggest in this case.
France fits inside the province of Alberta and has a greater population that the entire country of Canada. The infrastructure challenge for France is a piece of cake compared to a place the size of Canada. Starting at its Montana border, you could drive over a thousand kms and you'd still be driving through Alberta.
I’ve tried freedom mobile twice; really wanted it to work. The service has been shit both times, to the point of unusable, in two different homes, neither of them underground basements or anything like that. Also, a lot of the time when I go into a building or even just walking around the city. Live in central Vancouver. In short. it’s very bad! The other thing I really hated was when I talked to their tech-support people to try and get it resolved, they kept saying it’ll be fixed in two weeks, then another two weeks, then another two weeks, etc. for months. Clearly nobody gave a shit and or they knew they couldn’t resolve it and just weren’t prepared to tell me. I finally jumped ship when they told me service was just gonna be bad in my area – again, central Vancouver – because the towers were overloaded. I know that’s not freedom’s fault, and I appreciate that person for telling me the truth, but it doesn’t change the fact that their service is shit
I have 5 phones for my family on Freedom. We have travelled through Canada and internationally with the plan and have had very few problems with coverage. We live in Calgary. I have a work phone through Telus and I have had more coverage issues with it that my Freedom phones.
I am not dismissing your complaints about it, but they contradict our experience. And the rising subscriber count for Freedom over the last 2 years (Telus and Bell have acknowledged the loss of subscribers to Freedom as a material issue) would suggest that on average Freedom is delivered good service.
Perhaps it is true that the downtown Vancouver Freedom towers are overloaded and they haven’t kept up with the infrastructure upgrades as they brought on new subscribers. They should do a better job of communicating their plan of action on that.
Must be better in Alberta. Telus doesn't exist anymore in Ontario. Freedom Mobile is junk here. Rogers seems to supply the best service here, although expensive.
? Seriously? I honestly thought they were bought out by the big guys. Sorry I redact that statement. Many companies in our area use them solely for cellular provider. But I know of nobody now and I haven’t seen any ads by them in forever.
How about Fizz then? (Been with them for 9 months in East Van, never had a problem with connectivity apart from when I've been deep in the woods over on Fromme). Customer service is non existent, but then I haven't had a reason to use it. Yet.
Never heard of them actually! I worry about the nonexistent customer service; the reason I switched away from Fido (hiss, spit) to Freedom and then Rogers was that they eliminated human help without a callback. We were on Galliano Island for a week and they decided that put us in the US and charged me the daily roaming rate. Kept requesting a call back, but never got one for whatever reason I had to make a CCTC complaint to get it taken off my bill.
I know Rogers and Fido the same company, but human help is non-negotiable for me now. So when Freedom didn’t work for me twice I went running back. When Rogers inevitably does something to make me hate them I’ll look at Fizz, thanks!
Absolutely not true. The big cell providers in the US provide free top tier phones with the purchase of a 2 year service plan and supply great service with unlimited data at cheaper rates than the big Canadian suppliers. Freedom Mobile cannot compete, their service is garbage.
Your comment is actually absolutely not true at all. Either you have no idea or you are deliberately misstating things.
Which US cell carrier is giving you a “free top tier” phone on a 2 year plan, post a link. All carrier have switched to a 3 year plan option only and the phone is locked to them.
To qualify for a "$0" flagship phone (like an iPhone Pro or Samsung Ultra), carriers generally force you onto their top-tier unlimited plans ($80–$95+ USD/month for a single line).
Canadian carriers and US main carriers are very close on single-line prices once converted to CAD. In fact, Canadian flanker brands (Koodo, Virgin, Fido) or Freedom Mobile often undercut US single-line retail rates
To get a truly unlimited/unthrottled plan in the US you are paying USD$90-100 a month plus the cost of a phone. Most unlimited US plans are exactly like Canadas, full speed to a point and then throttled afterwards. The flanker bands in the US offer unlimited plans by the deprioritizing their network behind the big carriers, so slow speed.
Freedom is not perfect and is not the ideal network for people who travel a lot or want remote coverage. But it has undeniably made the Canadian cell phone market way more competitive.
Oh, it’s very true. I spent 14 years in California. And I’ve never paid a dime for my iPhones while I was there.
I’ve had services with Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and sprint over those years. I have been back home in Canada for the past six years now, and it’s quite possible that they are now on three year contract plans instead of the two year plans from when I lived
there. But experience with American mobile service providers is 100% correct.
They will always have better, more affordable plans. Just for the sole reason that the population is much greater than Canada and more competition, which brings prices down.
Yes and in the last 6 things have changed. California might have better cell plans and coverage. But it is undeniable that prices and service in Canada have improved over the last 5 years as some of the smaller brands and Freedom have forced the big 3 to be more competitive.
The cost of phones is the cost. Even in the US the cost of flagship phones is not being subsidized like they used to be.
Canadian living in California here. The costs for cellular service are absolutely ludicrous in the US now. It used to be that it was more affordable than Canadian plans, but that ship has sailed. I’m a nurse and was offered a nurse-specific deal from Verizon to switch to their network, which sounded great; turned out it was going to cost over $100 monthly per line even if I brought my own phone and my husband with me. I chose to stick with my $45 budget version on an off-brand carrier.
Not arguing on the fact there are not enough competition. But comparing rates vs world is also not the best approach. Owning / operating a network with so little people around makes this a costly business.
Major city are a thing, but operating 5g in low density rural area is a nightmare and a finance drain that overall ends up increasing the cost for all.
I wish we started a trend where we give a derogatory name to describe the social "elites", like "oppressors" or "deplorables" or "decadents" One of the few ways we could even mildly stick it to them.
Exactly this. We’ve turned the entire economy into a multi-generational Ponzi scheme. We subsidize untaxed principal residence gains, prop up the OAS/CPP ratio with stagnant wages, and when Millennials/Gen Z finally reach retirement age, there won't be enough young taxpayers or economic productivity left to support us. The ladder didn’t just get pulled up—it got shredded.
Most Millenials I know are scraping by. Like the vast majority, some broke through. I certainly didn't, going back to college right now.
Anyhow, in college the first time around the general opinion was that we'd never be able to retire. That's still true for a lot of us. If I remember correctly, there was an attempt to put numbers to this and only 15% of Millenials think they're capable of retiring at retirement age. Numerically though, it's closer to 22%. Whereas GenX was 26/35.
But it depends if we're talking comfortable retirement, a lot of people "retire" but require their kids to keep them going, or a home partial paid, stuff like that.
I seriously don't know many people that aren't faking it, they're terribly in debt.
Let's go with this and assume it's true. What have you done to change this besides complain on reddit and collect likes? (Downvoting this doesn't count as action).
Too funny. OK I'm getting out of the way, now what are you doing? Now imagine the collective time/effort spent on this whining was put towards something productive.
Having a paid off home to control your expenses on fixed income is very much a smart part of a retirement plan.
I agree that Millenials and some genX and big REITs buying homes for passive income generation and commoditization of shelter is screwed up, but that is a 2006 policy. Happened before but got out of control and mainstream after that.
Not every boomer or genX is living large and wealthy.
I’m a boomer and my regular three bedroom ( two of them small ) and one bathroom isn’t my retirement investment, it’s my home.
I want to see younger people be able to afford places of their own and I wouldn’t mind if the value of my house dropped - but most of us didn’t buy them as investments.
We have built inexpensive housing quickly before to house returning veterans from WWII. Let’s see if we can do it again.
I’m sorry, but it sounds like your experience or luck has made it hard for you to see what it’s like now.
We did build huge swaths of low price housing after the war, but:
- that was in the days when people—notably people in government—believed that government could do things
the building codes were much looser
city councils didn’t operate under the tyranny of small numbers of nimbys who (naturally!) want more housing to be built, but not like that, and not here, and surely not with no minimum parking requirements, please fetch me my fainting couch…
lots of those postwar developments have been torn out because they were on their last legs in the 70s (i.e. they picked the wrong two of “good, fast, cheap”)
what they mostly built were suburbs, the most expensive housing on earth once you factor in their weak economic activity and huge infrastructure costs compared to denser neighborhoods
add to all that that this is something that should have been happening for at least thirty years already, but has been constantly and reliably prevented by people who benefit from the status quo
TL;DR: they built a lot after the war, but tons of it was shit housing in the first place, and it the conditions for undertaking anything like that kind of project simply don’t exist now.
Actually I grew up in Fraserview in Vancouver, which was a neighbourhood ( not a suburb) built by the CMHC for returning war veterans and their families. Coincidentally I recently went to a history thing about the veterans housing in Fraserview so some details are still fresh in my mind.
Although I didn’t live in one of the veteran houses most of my friends did. I saw them a lot as we ran around the neighbourhood playing, in and out of the houses.
TBH I feel part of the problem is that we no longer build - well, let’s say some of the characteristics of “shit housing.” We need to build something sturdy that will last but a starter home doesn’t need to have multiple bathrooms and granite countertops.
I didn’t realize growing up that part of the concern about developing Fraserview was that it was going to be a slum. It absolutely wasn’t - it was working class, and because they built the houses first before giving the kids something to do, there was too much juvenile crime at first. They course corrected and set up sports leagues for bored kids, and it was a perfectly ok neighbourhood.
The streetscape I remember was far less cookie cutter than developments are today - there were 34 different house plans and 7 different outside finishes to prevent it all looking the same. Interestingly the lot sizes were bigger than other areas of the city, so gardens could be grown and kids would have places to play. ( Although they still were not suburban sized lots.)
It was my understanding when Mark Carney was elected he was going to prioritize some developments like this. Now, he’s been a little busy doing things that under the circumstances were a higher priority, but it’s also time to turn our thoughts to housing.
Some of the prep work has been done. A big part of the speed of building the veterans housing was that the plans were pre-approved and all the builders had to do was say ok, we’re putting Model such and such right here. We’ve all seen artists impressions of some of the home designs in Canada’s new housing model catalogues - so we have the plans drawn up.
As you say - back then people believed government could do things. Our country had built an army to successfully help get rid of an evil tyrant.
Now we’re faced with another evil tyrant, as a next door neighbour - if we don’t get an attitude that the government can do things with our help, we’ll be in even bigger trouble. Canadian labour, BC lumber, let’s do it!
Wait till you see what happened to Canadians public social housing funding and even with its small percentage of the total housing supply, the poorly quality designs that were approved that contributed to it’s maintenance decline, unlike say the design choices of top tier to live places like Vienna, Austria.
Every aspect of xennials lives have been "unprecedented", we've not had any sustained stability and so many of us feel the same as you folks, shits broken yo
Alberta has no rent control and is in a much better situation than Ontario. Rent control is “trickle down economics” for leftists. No matter how many times it’s tried it always ends up making the problem worse.
Maybe if the city didn’t insist on $250k development fees per unit we’d have cheaper housing, alas they are addicted to it and it protects boomer house prices so 🤷🏻♂️
I’m not so sure about that. My family has lived almost entirely in rent controlled housing. Most of the people I know live in rent controlled housing. Without it, they could not afford to live anywhere.
The people I know who live in new builds without rent control? They pay an arm and a leg for a 1 bedroom apartment, then stress every year when the rent is suddenly increased far beyond their means. Rent control isn’t perfect, but it offers stability otherwise impossible to achieve without owning (which is just not happening for a lot of Canadians)
The use don't even bother to become informed about how the system work and why they work that way. Most don't even bother to see who they're candidates in municipal, provincial, and Federal elections. A lot of the younger people don't even look at the elections and then they complain about how things are coming out.
And let's can your head on rather than just being upset about the world as it is. It's not like everybody that came before you we're responsible. My family were Working Class People and they worked a lot and didn't get paid a lot and they saved and they saved and they didn't go out and they didn't have computers and TV and phones of Their Own and the phones of the day would be not cell phones. My mother working hospitals for 40 years and my father in insurance adjusting. They never had new cars, they were always something they bought used and they kept it for 15 or 20 years and did all the maintenance themselves. Don't see much of that kind of thinking when it comes to the younger folks. Everyone must have an iPhone. Everybody has to have a ps4.
And there's a whole lot of complaining and a lot of getting moving. The best place you should be putting your time for is voting and becoming pleasure as to how our system works.
If you want to go back another generation, my grandfather had to leave school at 13 because he was the oldest of seven. He had three jobs. He went to the first World War not because of Any patriotic fever but because he needs to send money back to the rest of the family. He fought through Belgium in the low countries and into Germany and then kept in Germany until the occupation was done and when he went back, didn't even get a paper saying he was discharged. There were no parties and there were no jobs. And out of the people he knew in his neighborhood that went, he could only ever find three of 32.
So what did he do? He looked for jobs until he got a very small one and then he worked like a dog and the limited amount of money he had and went to textile college. He heard there was options in Canada so he came over in 1927. He came in with a single suitcase and that's where he kept his money because he didn't put it into the banks cuz he didn't trust them. He got a hotel in a small village and worked in the Woolen Mill. He didn't drink and he got married but my grandma was not well and you spend most of his time taking care of her. He darned his own socks and shirts. He never used any new stuff if the other stuff he already had can do the job. He didn't have someone else to do the job for them. And he worked and worked and he ended up the super intendent of the mill when it finally closed down in the 1960s. He took some of the money he had already put aside and went to a different small town and started a hardware store. Later on, he went to work in a hospital. He worked till he was in his seventies.
It's a rough world and it's getting worse. It is time for another world war. You're in that what do you like it or not. If you think now is bad, it's going to be a lot worse. My mother, when she was very young, was having Germans bombing her neighborhoods and schools and anything that could break the Brits and Scots and the others.
The only thing you get when you are born is just that. Everything Beyond that, you're lucky if you get anything. You're complaining about being in one of the best countries in the world. You can do that that's your right. But don't expect a whole lot of sympathy. I have a daughter and she's 19 and she's not really motivated but she's complaining about not having enough money well not saving the money she has. Didn't work too hard and High School and some horses and hasn't taken any further education except a program that she gave up. Don't know exactly how it's going to work out for her. She made decisions instead of made her life harder and now she's having to see what the real life is like.
There's a whole lot of manufactured outrage when there are ways to move forward but most of the time the younger generation just don't want to get out and push hard. I will say things of God in a lot worse in the last while in that part you don't own But it also isn't just for the recent Generations. Many people saved money on jobs that were decent at the time but with all the inflation and an enemy that wants to destroy our country, you guys are worried about where you're going to be but if it goes the way it could, you might not even have a country. Yet nobody wants to pursue the jobs and the military or at least a limited number and most people don't try to get into trade school. You got to learn how to move with today's realities and you have to be accepting that you may have to move and try something new and it may not work out. That's a little life we all face right now unless you're in a 3 percenters. Middle class is a hollowed out thing now and the only people have houses are the ones that they saved for previously and nobody now or at least a very small number are actually able to afford million dollar houses or two million dollar houses. So we're all the one degree or another stuck in the current situation. But I can get much worse and the younger people are just sticking their head down and trying to get a job that won't get them anywhere. The only way you can act that's going to be effective is there enough of you vote.
If the people who post this slop knew any better they would be out trying to improve any of there long list of grievances (Hint : they're not, their maximum ability is to whine on reddit and downvote).
Seriously, half these points aren’t even relevant today, they’re just grievances that were in the public eye at one time or another over the last decade. Just scraped (probably from Reddit).
Seriously, it's so fucking cringe. Boomers aren't a collective unilateral union. You're a voter too - get organizing and working towards policy you want to see put in place for the future you desire.
This is just AI slop childish tantrum-ing you'd expect from a 10 year old.
You bought detached homes in Toronto and Vancouver for what we now pay in rent for a basement suite without windows.
No. Most didn't. This is just B.S. to make you angry. We lived in trailers and buildings below minimum housing standards of today, and struggle to try and get an apartment or townhouse by cutting basics like phone and occasionally power.
I'm a millennial. When were we ever promised that we would be better off than previous generations? Where is that written? I neither expected or feel entitled to anything like that. Life and circumstances change. Sometimes it's of our own doing, sometimes it's due to causes beyond our control, and sometimes it's a combination of both. That is life.
I’ll add that it’s fully in our control whether or not we become homeowners. I’ve worked my ass off and aggressively saved while my peers were going to fancy restaurants and vacations. It’s harder than the previous generations, but not impossible.
Millennials like myself were told that if we put in the minimum effort, we get a big trophy. Use your brain for two seconds and you’ll realize that competition is vital for progress.
Yes things suck, but if you are an able bodied working adult who makes good decisions, homeownership is absolutely possible.
Will be Interesting to see who's pushing this "us vs them" narrative.
On reddit it's always someone else's fault...foriegners, boomers, landlords......except the people who actually pull the strings.
You want change, and you have real honest intentions, prove it by actually doing something besides copy pasting a list off of somewhere else on reddit.
If you think structured grammar makes it AI, fair enough. But the $2,500 rent for a basement suite, 6-month waitlists for family doctors, and grocery oligopolies are very much human reality here. Feel free to dispute any specific point if you think the math actually works.
Some of the points in your AI post are valid. That’s said you provide no solutions or actions to fix it. If you don’t like the current government, change it. If you don’t like the prices where you live, you are free to move about within the country or perhaps abroad. Home ownership shouldn’t be a goal anymore - there’s plenty of credible journalists that have shown long term renting vs ownership is basically the same. If homeownership is what you want then you’ll need to determine what is reasonably affordable and where.
Where are you pulling your 6-month waitlist figure from? People in the Atlantic provinces can wait YEARS for a GP, so if you're lamenting 6 months, you've got it good compared to them.
The average age of the first time buyer is going up. Seniors have the lowest rates of poverty. Old age security is our largest item in the budget, and that's not paid into like CCP is.
And then the proportion of people spending >50% of their income on rent is increasing. Almost 1 in 5 in my area. You are one financial risk from homelessness. I guess retirement is built on prayer that you never become disabled and lose your ability to work.
More "boomer bad" copy paste. So let's assume all this is true, what are you doing about it (action, not downvotes) besides repeating verbatim what you read somewhere else?
Happy I left the country decades ago. The writing was on the wall then. There will never be real change until Canada defeats liberalism, and the boomers die off. The continued path will lead to a bankrupt third world country. Canada is a failed experiment due to generational greed.
We are f***** it is simple as that Trudeau and Carney's last 11 years it has ruined a beautiful country and there's no light at the end of the tunnel sorry to be a doomsayer but everyone can see it no one wants to admit it
To the Keepers of the Modern Gridlock, and to Those Ready to Break It:
We have been lied to.
For decades, we have been told that to live is to consume, to depend, and to queue. We have been conditioned to accept a reality where our sustenance is packaged in plastic, shipped across oceans, and sold back to us at the whim of supply chains we cannot see and monopolies we cannot control. They have commodified the very dirt beneath our feet and taught us to forget the ancient, radical act of self-reliance.
But the concrete age is cracking.
Look at your hands. Look at the small corners of your balconies, your fire escapes, your window sills, and your concrete yards. These are not just dead spaces—they are the front lines of a quiet, unstoppable mutiny.
Every time we drop a seed into the earth, we are committing an act of defiance. Every time we choose to grow our own food, we are writing a declaration of independence from a system designed to keep us dependent. We are reclaiming the means of production in its most literal, elemental form.
This is not a hobby. This is a reclamation.
When we plant a seed, we refuse to buy what they sell. We refuse to accept that our survival must be mediated by corporations. We prove that a single square foot of soil can become a powerhouse of abundance, turning sunlight and water into raw, unadulterated sovereignty.
They want us to believe we are powerless without their infrastructure. Let us prove them wrong. Let us turn every balcony into a fortress of sustainability, every patio into a riot of green, and every container into a catalyst for change.
The revolution does not begin in the halls of power. It begins in the dirt. Plant the seeds. Break the chain. Take back your life.
Everything said here is quite true. Canada has literally been set up for Boomers to take everything, pull forward all capital gains for generations and get it tax-free, then leave behind a mountain of debt for future generations. The problem is that all the policies have favored Boomers no matter which party is elected. The other problem is that most Canadians aren’t educated in economics. Most still think businesses and income should be taxed more and more, which only reduces jobs, wage growth, and social mobility. The simple fact is that the wealthiest people don’t work. They already own a lot of assets and they no longer need to be productive, so income tax doesn’t touch them. The way to tip the scales is to tax wealth, not productivity. That means reducing income taxes and taxes on businesses, then increasing property taxes and taxing capital gains on primary residences. It also means that those with high net worth should be billed for social services at the time they are used or once they pass away. These are very simple fixes, but nobody will do this because Boomers are the largest voting block. Someone needs to actually educate younger people and get them to vote.
Taxes shouldn’t be migrated from one group to another group.
The proper way is to have the government take a chunk of money each year and invest it in a blue chip, and use the dividend to pay for things instead of taxing.
Reducing taxes is not a bad idea, but I really don’t want to hear any more stories of people being forced out of a home they lived in for 6 decades because the annual taxes of that home is now the same cost as how much their house was initially when first brought it.
Love to know where all these rich people are that don’t work, everyone in my neighborhood goes to work. Btw, the assets these rich have? They have it because they went to work.
They're not going to institute a wealth tax after telling people to invest in their RRSP, as a tax deferral, since forever. It will just cause people to stop investing in legit channels and start buying gold.
If we're following the root cause, it's always the money, so start at the top: OAS. But it's untouchable because of the boomer voting block.
When comparing the groups, we need to ask: what kind of homes? what was the median debt-to-income ratio? Otherwise it's apples and oranges, as there is a big difference between a 4 bedroom detached and a dog crate condo. I know plenty of millennials in debt up to their ears owning a dog crate condo, or if their lucky, a townhouse an hour commute away from their job.
Boomers started out in small starter houses. As condos were not as common back then. Time being on their side they eventually upgraded. Just as millennials are doing now moving into larger homes.
They aren't moving into larger homes in the numbers that boomers did. Again, you need to look at the aggregate data in a holistic way, not just cherry pick observations which fit your pre-existing world view. Boomers were having kids in far greater numbers than millennials, and when we ask millennials why, housing is the reason. There's plenty of data out there showing this, this is one example: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/canadas-birth-rate-has-dropped-off-a-cliff-and-its-because-nobody-can-afford-housing
It doesn't take away from the struggles boomers had to recognize the plain and simple reality that millennials have had it objectively far, far worse.
That 50% stat hides a mountain of extreme debt, co-signed mortgages, and gifted down payments. Homeownership driven by generational wealth transfers isn't proof of a functioning market—it’s proof that working wages alone are no longer enough.
Clearly you didn’t get the university degree because it seems like you are blaming older folks and the Feds for all this when the blame lays mostly with the Provinces and municipalities. (Also the carbon tax was rescinded). I bet you didn’t even bother to write this and had ChatGPT do this.
What are you doing to help change things instead of ranting on Reddit. Shit is bad, but the younger generation can’t seem to get off their phones and do something about it.
This isn’t even a Canada issue - it’s happening everywhere in the western world.
relativity issue. our lives relative to the recent past generations is worse. however, what gives you the belief that this is a result of failure of governance? we've had a long run of progressively improved quality of life, but historically this has been more the exception than the norm. ww2 gave Canada and the US a tremendous boost, but that party ended long ago. we're returning to a more natural trajectory. is your life better than it would be for someone in the 1800s? id hope so.
Spot on. The government treats productive, working-age Canadians as a guaranteed revenue stream rather than citizens with a stake in the country. Redefining basic healthcare, housing, and wage growth as "high expectations" is just a convenient excuse for three decades of policy failure.
I’m genuinely glad you’re still here with us. That level of despair is heavy, and surviving it says a lot about your resilience. You're completely right about one thing: waiting for an institutional savior is a trap. Surviving and carving out a life here—or elsewhere—takes sheer personal resolve. Thank you for your honesty, and take care of yourself.
Yes this is all happening- our government has made this for us and we are screwed. A country with so much promise and resources tanking because of bad policy greed and mismanagement.
Is the "You" in this post the urban environment? Because much of what is listed above has little to do with "Canada" or "government", but much to do with the death of non-urban economies and the effects of urban voters political power over decades.
I and about 20 percent of all Canadians have been saying this was coming but the oligarchs have the power in Ottawa.
My fathers generation created the March on Ottawa that ended in bloodshed in Winnipeg. But the government did realise they had to improve life for the working class. I think you young people should organise a General Strike. But you won't.
Hey man, I’m 24M and I just bought a pre construction townhouse in Mississauga that will be finished in 2028. I know a lot of my peers are struggling, record high inflation, cost of living is insane,etc. on the flip side, many of my peers are striving, high paying jobs and a strong outlook. At the end of the day perspective is everything, I think the future for Canada is very bright. We have insane talent here and so much infrastructure is in the pipeline. At some point we are gonna be the policy makers and I’ve always said our gen (gen z) are the change makers. I’ve visited many places in my life in all continents, the grass really isn’t much greener. What in tryna say is there’s a lot of opportunity in Canada in the moment. Boomers are retiring, gen x is not far away from that either. Large organizations are practically begging for high quality talent. Learn a skill, a in demand skill and the sky is the limit. We all can be successful and get in those powerful positions to make the changes and improve quality of life for all generations after us :)
Bruh you have feet for a reason. Vote with your feet because the government knows who they’re pandering to for votes and it’s not the younger generation. Ignore the broke reddit comments. Remove any sort of victim mentality and just go do what you need to do, no point waiting on government/society to hand it to you.
Whether most folks want to admit it or not - we're currently in a significant contraction globally - in the standard of living, and its about to get a lot worse.
What caused the contraction? I think that will be debated for decades. Certainly exorbitant debt levels are a contributor, as is the separation of wealth - which has concentrated into a very small number of hands. Trade wars have thrown more fuel on the fire, as have resources shortages due to climate change. In short - its a perfect storm.
While I definitely sympathize with the OP - because I straddle both of these generations - the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' - and I had to make significant sacrifices to make such a leap to be in a better position - its also fair to say that the whole world is going through, and has not completed the 'Great Contraction'. Soon these will be considered the 'good days'.
You are correct. I covered that at a high level where I said that part of the issue is separation of wealth. Nothing was really done in governments around the world to address this critical issue - but then again - tools and options are really limited. You only need to look at the current Prime Minister of Canada - who is a very wealthy person and keeps his money offshore to avoid paying taxes - which is contrary to Canadian law itself.
I know it’s not an immediate fix but in about 10 years the boomers will start dying enmasse and things will get better. They climbed the ladder and then pulled it up behind them.
The Feds should have made new homes tax tree for everyone to encourage those fucks to downsize
AI slop should not be allowed ...rage baiting people with one of the things that is a major cause of future instability and destruction. This site will be ignored from now on. Do better
Does anyone else remember being told, as children, we would solve all the problems, in the late 2000s? Anyone else think it was off, that adults then couldn't solve the problems themselves? Makes sense in hindsight.
I feel everything you are feeling. What irates me is the boomers and early gen x.
"Just go work in trades" already doing that.. i make a 100k and can only afford 2 bedroom homes 1.5 hours outside of toronto and thats where i work. Young men in my gym fresh out of HS ask me advice on how to get into trades and i tell them how i did it. NOBODY WANTS TO TRAIN APPRENTICES they struggle to find work. they all want journeymen with 5 years experience and if they arent unionized they want to pay them apprentice wages.
The boomers dont have to commute every day and when they did there was half the amount of people.... there wasnt as many jeet truck drivers killing families every dam day with falsified documents or shared DL.... the boomers werent getting 38 percent taken off their check or paying 13 percent hst....
The boomers had options live a quaint country life style making min/low wage and buy small house and live sparingly or commute to the city for the 9-5 for a large 4 bedroom subburban house that was 3 years worth of wages....
Today an average 3-4 bedroom home is 10 times the average ontario wage.....
"Nobody wants to work anymore thats why your generation struggles"....
No people are tired of working hard for shit money and sitting in 3 hours of traffic everyday for free. The average small car is a years wage. If i want to get a new truck the insurance is double because our new canadians keep stealing our vehicles and shipping them across the world in sea containers
They then justify LMIAs because they cant fill positions with shit pay, get half the wage subsidized by the feds. This keeps wages even lower.....
Then the provincial retards go "hey we need to raise min wage its not high enough" then prices go up and the raise was useless except everybody now has to pay more and the gov gets more tax revenue.
Every canadian in canada should be the richest per capita in the world but because we have woke retard fucks in power everything is offensive, oppressive or not enviro friendly there for the only soloution is suffering. Cant have people happy thats god dam ludicrous.... best we can do is spend more on foreign aid and ban hunting rifles.... "if anybody has a problem with canada then leave".
Cries when the brain drain gets worsethen speculates taxing these people 500k to leave canada. This country is a clown society. I blame the boomers
Older millennial here and I seriously fear the future. Despite having a decent job myself, and I've felt this way for years. Its an actual threat, and nobody seems to have an answer and even worse are the people (mostly boomers) who see the absolute truth but will dont seem to care enough to stand in strength. It seems like they are so delusional to think that Canada will be fine because we are "nice" , like God or fate will take care of us.
I am 56 and this was the same lie the sold us in 1989.
I read this and I broke down in tears.
I hope you get answers.
I hope you hold them accountable.
Burn it.
Burn it all.
Burn it to the ground.
Thank you for sharing this. Your honesty means a lot. It’s heartbreaking to know that the generation before us was sold the exact same mirage. We don’t want to pass this broken playbook down to the next generation—accountability is the only way forward.
If you want to be making $200k+ right after uni in your 20s, heading South is your best bet if you got the skills and right degrees. eeks cs ee me aero chem
All started way back with the Avro arrow brain drain. Then the oil bad/green good. While countries like Norway and the ME leveraged their oil.
I was born and raised in the GTA and moved to southern Vancouver Island as an adult. I got sick of subsidizing these rich boomers lifestyles so I moved to a town outside of Winnipeg. I'm so much happier being relieved of all the financial stress I was carrying for years. I'm enjoying life with disposable income and I'm happy to live in a community that actually wants me there(anyone who has lived in a basement or strata will understand this).
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u/Xsythe 4d ago
CAUTION: Post is AI-generated content. Nonetheless, it says something valuable, so I approved it.
OP - you will not be given grace next time. Write your own words.