“Previous generations are rigging the system for their benefit and making it harder for my generation.” That’s what 54 per cent of Canadians age 18 to 29 believe, according to new Leger polling. Most also think “politicians are more interested in promoting and protecting the interests of older generations than people my age.”
Readers of my column will know I agree. Ongoing over-extraction of shared resources from the environment, of wealth from the housing system, and of young people’s tax dollars to pay for boomers’ retirement all rig the system against millennials and Gen Z.
I recently hosted a townhall in Vancouver with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss these generational tensions with an invited group of 50 students and representatives of local community groups. (Those who would like to hear the conversation should check out the latest episode of the Generation Squeeze Hard Truths podcast). I left feeling hopeful there is opportunity to restore intergenerational solidarity, but only if Gen X and boomers send clear signals to all political parties that we want to be better ancestors. Because leaders can only get so far ahead of the electorate before it becomes politically untenable, as the carbon pricing debate now reveals.
The Prime Minister’s popularity wanes among contemporary voters even as history books will write well about some parts of his intergenerational track record. His government’s enrichment of the Canada Child Benefit reduced child poverty by about a third. He allocated funding to build a $10-a-day child-care system after a half century of previous governments ignored a similar recommendation from the 1970 Royal Commission on the Status of Women.
He implemented the price on pollution, after decades of governments discounted evidence that we betray our children when we don’t pay for our carbon emissions. They will pay dearly down the road for messes we were unwilling to clean up now.
But pollution pricing may ultimately invite the Prime Minister’s electoral defeat. Polls reveal many Canadians are hesitant to show intergenerational solidarity on this issue, after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre vowed to focus the next election on the carbon tax, and Mr. Trudeau exempted home heating oil owing to pressure in Atlantic provinces.
Housing is another intergenerational problem for Mr. Trudeau. Since he expects younger Canadians to endure higher housing costs to protect many older people’s home equity, an intergenerationally just housing plan would expect those of us receiving protection to offer some compensation in return.
Public opinion is not yet onside, Mr. Trudeau suggested during the townhall: “An older generation of folks, they say ‘I remember I had to scrimp and save for years before we could set a down payment on a home’.” And, that of course, is true.
But the Prime Minister insisted there is something fundamentally different facing young people today, because good jobs no longer guarantee a path to home ownership. “Getting seniors to understand that there is something different, I think is a bit of a challenge that we are still working on.”
Further work is also required to get older Canadians to acknowledge that administrations didn’t plan adequately decades ago to raise the revenue needed to cover the cost of boomers’ healthy retirements. As a result, there’s less room in contemporary budgets to invest in younger people. New spending on Old Age Security (OAS) in budget 2024 will increase 15 times faster than new spending on housing, and 10 times faster than new investment in child care. OAS increases also drive unpaid government bills.
Given these trends, Mr. Trudeau desires a more sophisticated political conversation about what’s going on in our finances than is typically enabled by social media, bumper stickers and political strategies designed to amplify fear or anger.
Disrupting the generational tensions that flow from budget decisions made decades ago is very difficult, he implied. “It’s a shame to see that the largest housing investment in Canada’s history is the [size of] a mole” by comparison with the scale of new money earmarked for today’s retirees. So, Ottawa needs to “rebalance things at least a little bit,” he concluded.
His openness to rebalancing fiscal policy to promote fairness for every generation is important. But I can understand why he may hesitate if older voters don’t signal enough popular support. He is already paying a big enough political cost for carbon pricing that his opinion on other intergenerational issues may not matter after the next election.
So older folks, let’s get on with creating the requisite political cover, incentivizing all parties to end the over-extraction from our kids and grandchildren.
Otherwise, most millennials and Gen Zs will be right to judge we’ve rigged the system against them.
Dr. Paul Kershaw is a policy professor at UBC and founder of Generation Squeeze, Canada’s leading voice for generational fairness. He offers policy advice to governments of all party stripes, including the current federal cabinet. You can follow Gen Squeeze on X, Facebook, Instagram and subscribe to Paul’s Hard Truths podcast.
