From New Brunswick to Quebec, Ontario to BC, students and young Canadians are coming together with a clear message for Ottawa:

It’s time to restore hope for their generations.

The Gen Squeeze team is proud to be standing alongside them. Our Restore Hope Tour is connecting conversations on campuses and in classrooms, at pubs and cafés — amplifying young people’s calls to improve affordability by reforming Old Age Security.

Hope matters. It gives people confidence to start businesses, invest in communities, raise families, trust democratic institutions, and sacrifice today to invest for tomorrow.

When hope erodes among younger generations, so does much of what allows a country to flourish. Yet for too many young people, the distance between working hard and building a secure life keeps growing.

·       Education comes with record debt.

·       High rents absorb money that might once have been saved for a down payment.

·       Finding stable work that covers rising costs is getting harder.

·       Starting a family feels financially out of reach.

·       The risks and costs of climate damage are rising.

No wonder young Canadians’ happiness has fallen at a pace comparable to declines in places like Lebanon and Afghanistan.

These alarming trends should make restoring young people’s wellbeing an urgent national priority. Yet that urgency is too often missing from political debate and government decisions.

The Restore Hope Tour is a chance to ask why — and demand change.

The young leaders at the heart of these conversations are calling out a troubling reality: Canada has become better at protecting the living standards older people have already achieved, than creating comparable opportunities for those still trying to build their lives.

Younger generations are consistently shortchanged in government budgets, no matter which party is in charge. With spending rising to meet the needs of an aging population, investments in the foundations of younger people's wellbeing simply aren't keeping pace.

They are right to challenge these choices. Old Age Security shows how much room there is to make better ones.

As Canada’s single largest budget line item, OAS doesn’t just deliver greater financial security to lower and middle-income retirees. It delivers about $18,000 in annual subsidies to retired couples with household incomes exceeding $185,000 — well over twice the median income for Canadian families. Plus, eligibility for OAS doesn’t consider the real estate and investment wealth that seniors have more of than any other age group.

That’s difficult to justify when 400,000 seniors live in poverty, and when supports for families with kids and grants for postsecondary students are phased out at far less generous levels. Young parents and students begin to see their benefits disappear with $100,000 less household income than retirement-age Canadians receiving OAS.

It’s time for Canada to renew our generational bargain without pitting young against old. The place to start is by making OAS responsible, modern, and fair — an intergenerational win-win.

Three-quarters of Canadians under 35 and over 65 agree that OAS subsidies should begin being phased out once household income exceeds $100,000 — more in line with other cash supports. This one reform would leave OAS unchanged or improved for 80% of seniors, but the savings are transformative. We could:

·       Lift every poor senior above Canada’s official poverty measure

·       Help a million young people afford rent

·       Strengthen Canada Student Grants

·       Support underemployed youth

·       Create 100,000 additional $10-a-day child-care spaces

Tell Ottawa to Invest in Hope by Fixing OAS

These investments would strengthen opportunities for younger Canadians to plan their lives — and give them more confidence that their future here can be secure. That’s why OAS reform is at the centre of the Restore Hope Tour. It offers a concrete way to invest in hope TODAY. Young Canadians shouldn’t have to wait for new trade agreements or infrastructure projects to deliver results before governments invest in their wellbeing when there are responsible actions that can be taken right now.

Each stop on the Restore Hope Tour will unite more young people behind the call for OAS reform. Each gathering is an opportunity to press Ottawa to invest more urgently in their wellbeing.

The young people behind this work are reminding all of us: if we’re serious about Building Canada Strong, we need to fix OAS — and invest the savings in a future every generation can believe in.

Stay tuned for more on tour stops and opportunities to get involved.