Most recent news and insights
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Carney’s housing ambition doesn’t include a goal for home prices
Posted by Andrea Long · June 12, 2025 11:20 AM
Ottawa recently released what it describes as the “most ambitious” housing plan in over 75 years. In many ways, it delivers. But for all its ambition on building homes, the plan is silent on deeper tensions that drive unaffordability – especially the generational dynamics at its core.
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Globe & Mail: Why an increase in mortgage-free young people is a worrisome sign
Posted by Paul Kershaw · June 12, 2025 7:06 AM
Home ownership among young Canadians (under age 35) has recently surged to 44%, the highest level in five decades! 18% of them are mortgage-free. This indicates Canada may be drifting from a meritocracy toward a landed aristocracy, where access to secure housing increasingly depends on being born into the right family.
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Globe & Mail: The one question that all politicians dodge: Do housing prices need to fall?
Posted by Paul Kershaw · June 02, 2025 4:56 AM
Canadian politicians are sidestepping the most important – and politically dangerous – question in our housing debate: Should home prices rise, stall or fall? Until we answer it, we can’t fix what’s broken in Canada’s housing system.
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Globe & Mail: Carney’s housing fix needs a dividend for millennials and Gen Z
Posted by Andrea Long · May 21, 2025 11:25 AM
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.
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Lack of age-based data allows Ontario budget to avoid acting on key fiscal challenges
Posted by Andrea Long · May 20, 2025 11:24 AM
The fiscal pressures created by our aging population are driving Ontario’s red ink – as they are for many governments across Canada. The primary driver of Ontario’s deficit is easy to obscure when the province continues to fail to report the age breakdown of public spending. This isn’t just an oversight. It’s an institutional failure to publish data that would expose some of the most important trends shaping our fiscal future.
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What do we want from the new Liberal government?
Posted by Andrea Long · May 09, 2025 1:38 PM
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.
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Globe & Mail: Reading the fine print on personal finance promises in party platforms
Posted by Paul Kershaw · May 06, 2025 6:19 AM
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.
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Globe & Mail: Exaggerated talk of Western separation costs Canada economically and democratically
Posted by Paul Kershaw · April 23, 2025 1:14 PM
Tariffs threaten jobs. Market volatility threatens savings. Misleading pronouncements about the risks of Western separation threatens Canadian democracy on which we rely to manage these economic risks.
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Globe & Mail: No party can fix housing without compensating millennials and Gen Z
Posted by Paul Kershaw · April 07, 2025 6:26 AM
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.
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Globe & Mail: To protect our finances, politicians must offer platforms, not platitudes
Posted by Paul Kershaw · March 21, 2025 6:00 PM
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.
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