There’s something to be said for the good old days.
It’s not that I’m nostalgic for the rush of securing a Blockbuster new release or for watching Wayne Gretzky dominate the competition, but I do look fondly on years gone by because it seems like life was more affordable back then.
Most of my life has been spent in Greater Vancouver, so my recollections are shaped by that, but there once was a time, and I’m thinking 50 or so years ago when I was a kid, when it was possible for a family to live on one income, which, incidentally, didn’t have to be in the top one per cent.
It didn’t take long, maybe 20 years, for that dream to disappear, but at least by the time I became an adult, a two-income family could afford to buy a home. It wouldn’t have been a fancy one, but two average salaries were sufficient to carry the mortgage.
That scenario has since become a pipe dream not only in the Vancouver area, but in many other parts of the country as housing has become progressively more out of reach for a growing number of Canadians.
Although it’s the single biggest culprit, housing isn’t the only thing putting the squeeze on household budgets as pretty much everything – from food and utilities to cellphones and gas – has risen faster than wages in recent times. That’s not even factoring in never-ending tax increases that continue to erode buying power.
Add it all up and Canadians are worse off than they were a generation or two ago, particularly younger people who in many instances require help from parents and grandparents just to get by.
It's not hard to sense a growing resentment towards those believed responsible for getting us to this point, for allowing our quality of life, at least from a financial perspective, to become what it is today. We’re feeling gouged at every turn, whether it’s at the grocery store, the gas pump or when paying energy, cellphone and internet/cable bills.
Life is getting more expensive and not enough is being done to combat that.
It's at this point I feel obliged to say this is not a paid advertisement for Pierre Poilievre, however the Conservative Party leader’s pledge to make life more affordable for Canadians sounds pretty good about now.
I mean, shouldn’t the primary focus of any government be making life better for its constituents, whether that’s through improved services or by creating an environment in which they can prosper? When we’re getting progressively worse off, that means governments are failing on that most basic of fronts.
I’m not suggesting that we’re all in the poor house, but we're heading in a direction that isn’t sustainable, one that makes realizing the Canadian dream an exceedingly difficult proposition.
There’s much to occupy politicians’ attention these days, but surely making life more affordable must be right at the top of the list. The good news, if you can call it that, is that there are plenty of fronts on which our political leaders
