Election news & insights

With young people facing heavy rents and oversized mortgages for the foreseeable future, compensation is overdue. Millennials and Gen Z deserve a greater share of the $1.5-trillion windfall generated by rising home values since boomers were young adults.

The Liberal election platform recognized that Canada no longer works for all generations. As Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new government appoints Ministers and sets out plans, solutions to this national challenge must be at the forefront of our efforts to protect, build, and unite Canada.

The Generation Squeeze Lab at UBC created the “Dupe-o-Meter” to help voters distinguish magical thinking from evidence-based election promises. We assess all platform projections in light of what Ottawa already budgeted in 2024 to share important insights.

The political bargain we’ve struck in Canada obliges younger people to compromise their standard of living to protect the housing wealth accumulated by homeowners who have come before them. It’s time to acknowledge this – and to compensate young people for their profound expression of intergenerational solidarity.

Democracy suffers when elections are fought by press releases, not platforms, because voters don’t receive reliable information. All political parties must deliver clear, costed plans rather than promises that are more slogan than substance.

Habitual demands for lower taxes and higher government spending to win our vote will leave our beloved country vulnerable to a wide range of international, domestic and environmental threats.

Our supporter shares his "New Perspective on Voting" to promote longer-term thinking across generations. Voting in solidarity with younger people — who stand to inherit growing climate risks and costs, rising government debts, and prohibitively unaffordable housing — is a concrete way for today’s retirees to be good ancestors to those who follow them. And perhaps the prospect of having their political influence amplified could be the nudge more younger people need to make sure they show up on election days.

As 2023 wraps up, we decided to pause and take stock of the headway we've made this year. Here are five highlights that leave us feeling proud, grateful and inspired to keep marching down the long, slow, winding road to generational fairness.

Talk of “youth issues” is distracting, drawing attention from the root causes of the problems, which have less to do with younger generations than their treatment by older ones as a result of past policy decisions. To begin to fix this, Ottawa should launch a general fairness council to investigate why Canada no longer works fairly for all generations.