Younger Canadians pay for a deficit debate that’s missing the point

Paul Kershaw

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October 06, 2026

In BC's snap election, Trump-washing and pledges against new taxes are replacing honest conversation about the largest driver of provincial deficits - and how to fix them.

Globe & Mail, BC Election 2026, Elections, Budgets

A more dangerous world requires smarter retirement spending

Paul Kershaw

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September 15, 2026

Canadians know that unnerving times require serious choices. When diverse voices converge on the same conclusion, politicians should take notice. Right now, the shared prescription is Old Age Security reform....

Globe & Mail, Retirement

Globe & Mail: The high cost of pitting generations against each other

Paul Kershaw

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August 27, 2026

Rebuilding hope for younger generations must become a defining nation-building project of our time. It starts by acknowledging that Canada has become better at protecting the living standards people have...

Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: If improved affordability prevents homebuilding, something is broken

Paul Kershaw

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July 05, 2026

Canada appears to have built a housing market that constructs homes only when housing becomes less affordable. The collateral damage falls on younger Canadians.

Globe & Mail, Housing

Globe & Mail: Mark Carney’s economic plan has medium-term goals, but we need affordability now

Paul Kershaw

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June 18, 2026

Building Canada strong will take years. Millions of Canadians are looking for evidence that their government understands the financial pressures they face today, not just the prosperity it hopes to...

Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: Canada prices carbon far below the damage it causes

Paul Kershaw

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June 04, 2026

The federal government’s own estimates show that large emitters pay far less than the damage carbon pollution causes. Those unpaid costs do not disappear. They are passed on to younger...

Globe & Mail, Climate

Do we really expect young Canadians to wait until 2060 for affordable housing?

Paul Kershaw

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May 22, 2026

The bleak forecast from Canada’s Federal Housing Advocate is that many middle-income Canadians may have to wait until 2060 before adequate housing will be affordable.

Globe & Mail, Housing

Globe & Mail: Modernizing Old Age Security would free billions for Ottawa to address affordability

Paul Kershaw

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May 14, 2026

By 2030, Canada will send $17.5-billion/year in Old Age Security income benefits to retirees who live in households with six-figure incomes. Here's how the money could be better spent...

Retirement, Globe & Mail

Trump the Accidental Environmentalist

Paul Kershaw

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April 23, 2026

Donald Trump is unwittingly fuelling the clean energy transition. More than six weeks into his military confrontation with Iran, there are growing reports that many countries are scrambling to accelerate...

Climate, Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: Young Canadians are increasingly miserable. Government priorities show why

Paul Kershaw

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April 10, 2026

Government budgets shape how we live – and how we feel. The consequences of government policy choices can be seen in new research on happiness. While baby boomers remain relatively...

Globe & Mail, Budgets

Globe & Mail: Lowering the Old Age Security income threshold is no longer politically taboo

Paul Kershaw

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March 27, 2026

Originally published in The Globe & Mail on March 6, 2026 Seniors are a powerful voting block, one that many commentators believe helped the Carney Liberals win the last election....Read More

Opinion Polling, Globe & Mail, Retirement

Globe & Mail: Across the political spectrum, ageist provincial budgets fail the young

Paul Kershaw

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March 13, 2026

Political battles may dominate the headlines, but beneath the theatre the fiscal outcome is the same: provincial budgets that discriminate against children, parents and young workers.

Globe & Mail, Budgets

Globe & Mail: Building more homes alone won’t fix affordability. Here’s what else is needed

Paul Kershaw

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February 27, 2026

If the goal is lasting affordability, Canada's National Housing Strategy 2.0 must deploy the full set of policy levers that shape prices and rents – not simply pursue higher construction...

Globe & Mail, Housing

Globe & Mail: If Canada expects young people to defend national security, we must improve their financial security

Paul Kershaw

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February 13, 2026

Before we ask Millennials and Gen Z to shoulder yet another obligation of national service, we must acknowledge the many ways we already oblige them to sacrifice. We must also...

Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: Canada must renew its national housing strategy

Paul Kershaw

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January 30, 2026

It is essential for the Carney government to renew and substantially improve Canada’s National Housing Strategy. Renewal offers a chance to do better. The original version was a step forward,...

Housing, Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: How to ensure universal health care stays that way

Paul Kershaw

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January 06, 2026

Protecting universal access to healthcare in Canada will require a revenue discussion. Since younger generations already pay 20 to 40% more income taxes toward older people’s well-being than boomers did...

Health & Wellbeing, Budgets, Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: The politics of Old Age Security reform are shifting

Paul Kershaw

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November 28, 2025

Something important shifted this federal budget season. For years, Generation Squeeze was a lone voice warning that Old Age Security absorbs more tax dollars than any other line in Ottawa’s...

Retirement, Budgets, Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: Time to fix the inflation indicator hobbling a generation of homebuyers

Paul Kershaw

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November 08, 2025

Canada’s housing plan must expand beyond building more homes to fix a flaw that has long fuelled unaffordability: Statistics Canada’s underestimation of housing inflation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Globe & Mail, Housing

Globe & Mail: A much-needed facelift for the upcoming federal budget

Paul Kershaw

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November 03, 2025

In an era of large deficits and rising interest costs, our politicians need clearer priorities for how they spend scarce public dollars. Canada’s most expensive program, Old Age Security, has...

Budgets, Canada, Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: A boost to OAS would help too little where it’s needed, and too much where it’s not

Paul Kershaw

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October 14, 2025

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) proposes an increase to Canada's Old Age Security but it won’t lift most poor seniors out of poverty. Yet, it would pad the...

Globe & Mail, Retirement

Globe & Mail: Gen Z doesn’t need a year of national service. They’re already drafted into decades of service for older Canadians

Paul Kershaw

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September 01, 2025

Younger Canadians already perform a critical national service: They pay more out of pocket, and sacrifice their standard of living, to protect healthy retirements for our aging population.

Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: Provinces have so far failed to prepare for boomers’ medical costs, but it’s not too late

Paul Kershaw

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June 27, 2025

Medical care is the largest expense in every provincial budget across Canada. The demand for medical care will continue to surge as boomers age through the system. Canadians and governments...

Health & Wellbeing, Budgets, Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: Why an increase in mortgage-free young people is a worrisome sign

Paul Kershaw

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June 12, 2025

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...

Globe & Mail, Housing

Globe & Mail: The one question that all politicians dodge: Do housing prices need to fall?

Paul Kershaw

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June 02, 2025

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...

Globe & Mail, Housing

Globe & Mail: It’s time to reform Old Age Security - and a scathing auditor’s report confirms it

Paul Kershaw

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December 16, 2024

Ottawa bureaucrats have no idea whether Canada's most expensive program – Old Age Security (OAS) – is meeting its objectives. This stunning finding leads to a number of critical questions...

Globe & Mail, Retirement

Globe & Mail: Millennials pay higher taxes for boomers’ retirement - and the burden is only going to increase

Paul Kershaw

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November 15, 2024

The typical 35-year-old Canadian now pays approximately 20-per-cent to 40-per-cent more for boomers’ healthy retirements than boomers paid as young people to support seniors in their day. This extra tax...

Retirement, Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: Millennials and Gen Z deserve legislation to protect their finances

Paul Kershaw

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September 08, 2024

Governments failure to plan for the future is a root cause of many financial challenges facing Millennials and Gen Z. Enshrining generational fairness in legislation will ensure Canada safeguards the...

Globe & Mail

Globe & Mail: Don’t be duped. The housing market isn’t weak when prices stall.

Paul Kershaw

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August 23, 2024

When too many Canadians can't afford homes as owners or renters, we should be describing the housing market as strong when prices don’t rise, and weak when they do.

Globe & Mail, Housing

Globe & Mail: Our kids think we’re rigging the system against them

Paul Kershaw

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July 18, 2024

Ongoing over-extraction of shared environmental resources, wealth from the housing system, and young people’s tax dollars gives a majority of Millennials and Gen Z good reason to believe that previous...

Globe & Mail, Housing, Retirement

Globe & Mail: Younger Canadians deserve compensation for enduring higher home prices

Paul Kershaw

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June 15, 2024

Correcting the age-imbalance in government budgets is the least Canada can do to compensate younger folks for sacrificing their financial security to protect the housing wealth of home owners who've...

Globe & Mail, Housing

The Globe & Mail: Eby, Ford and Trudeau are paying for government failures decades ago

Paul Kershaw

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May 25, 2024

The NDP in B.C., Progressive Conservatives in Ontario and Liberals in Ottawa all struggle to balance their budgets today because governments failed decades ago to plan adequately for boomers’ retirement.

Budgets, Globe & Mail

The Globe & Mail: Protect OAS by eliminating outdated tax shelters for retirees

Generation Squeeze

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October 22, 2023

The sustainability of OAS is under threat as our population ages. Ottawa should review outdated tax shelters for retirees that drain billions in revenue and could otherwise help cover rising...

Globe & Mail, Retirement

The Globe & Mail: ‘Fiscal restraint’ in federal budget is impossible when generational tension ignored

Paul Kershaw

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April 15, 2023

Originally published in The Globe & Mail on April 8, 2023 Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland emphasized the need for “fiscal restraint” in her recent budget. But that’s not what she delivered...Read More

Budgets, Globe & Mail

The Globe & Mail: Boomers didn’t live within their means. And younger generations will pay the price.

Paul Kershaw

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March 20, 2023

Finances for younger Canadians would be much better had boomers lived within their means. But the data show otherwise. It’s time for boomers to own up to this part of...

Globe & Mail, Retirement

The Globe & Mail: The Home Ownership Tax Shelter is unfair to Prairies, Quebec and Atlantic Canada

Paul Kershaw

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January 02, 2023

A five-decades-old federal tax shelter gives an unfair boost to homeowners in hot markets while shafting residents of the Prairies and Atlantic Canada.

Globe & Mail, Housing

The Globe & Mail: Statscan failed young Canadians by underestimating the effect of housing inflation

Paul Kershaw

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November 01, 2022

Amid all the talk of inflation, it’s easy to forget that a generation of young Canadians are shut out of home ownership in part because Statistics Canada failed to sound...

Housing, Globe & Mail

The Globe & Mail: Young Canadians go to school longer for jobs that pay less, and then face soaring home prices

Paul Kershaw

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September 30, 2022

It is a cliché now to suggest that young people today drink too many lattes and eat too much avocado toast, so can’t afford their major costs of living. As...

Globe & Mail, Housing