Concerns about cost of living, wages, and affordability have been an important part of Canada’s political discourse for many years. But we felt something was happening. Canadians seem to be more anxious about the future and their ability to maintain a standard of living they expect.
We also felt that many populist movements, both in Canada and abroad, have effectively tapped into this anxiousness and leveraged it for political gain often with a regressive, anti-immigration and anti-government tone.
Together with the Broadbent Institute, we set out to explore how the public feels about the issue, what is driving their concerns, and what solutions they think might work.
Our objective is to offer progressives in Canada insight into the broader issue and how to offer a progressive solution to the growing affordability crisis.
The 2019 General Election is shaping up to be one focused on affordability.
Affordability and income inequality issues top the list of concerns that Canadians say will determine their vote this year and half say they are worried about their cost of living in their lives.
But there’s also concern about public services especially health care and rising out of pocket costs.
‘The Affordability Equation: How a Rising Concern About the Cost of Living Presents a Threat and Opportunity to Progressives’ is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
