Trump's Presence Affecting Canadian Elections; Affordability Salient Concern
Vancouver, Canada - Unaffordable Paradise:
Living in Vancouver, a beautiful metropolis nestled along the Pacific coast, is a dream for many. However, for Leslie Macfarlane, a 67-year-old retiree, it became a nightmare when she and her husband were evicted from their mobile home park last year. The couple was forced to relocate due to a massive low-rise apartment complex redevelopment, a typical occurrence in this expensive region.
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Short on options, the couple opted to move back to Macfarlane's hometown of Gibsons, a small coastal community in British Columbia. The cost of living in Gibsons, accessible only by ferry, is significantly higher than before. Macfarlane is now buying "hand baskets of food per week instead of carts" due to the rising cost of groceries, making housing affordability and food prices her top concerns ahead of the federal election on April 28.
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Soaring Inflation During Trudeau's Tenure:
Former Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised "sunny ways" upon his election in 2015, but Canadians have struggled to keep up with the rising cost of living during his tenure. In June 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the inflation rate in Canada was 8.1 percent higher than the previous year—the largest annual change since 1983, according to Statistics Canada. The high inflation was attributed to shipping bottlenecks, pandemic-related delays, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While inflation has since slowed to 2.3 percent, prices remain significantly higher than before the pandemic.
Housing Woes Across Canada:
Affordable housing has been a concern for Canadians long before the pandemic. However, with the Bank of Canada starting to raise interest rates in 2022, housing affordability got "much worse," according to David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. In some key Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver, asking rents have increased by almost 18 percent since March 2020. Housing inflation is more personally felt by consumers, especially in regularly purchased items such as food and petrol.
Immigration and the Affordability Crisis:
Some Canadians have blamed Trudeau's high immigration targets for the affordability issues. Immigration numbers rose until 2020, when the pandemic caused a dramatic drop. However, as the economy opened up in 2021, businesses, universities, and provincial governments had a significant need for workers, students, and others, especially after a period of little migration. The rapid influx of new people in certain metropolitan areas put pressure on those housing markets.
The Struggling Middle Class:
For Toronto resident Shahad Ishak, Trudeau may have overpromised during his election campaigns. Ishak, who immigrated from Kuwait to Canada in 2013, faced several challenges settling in the country, including high rental prices and employment barriers due to a lack of Canadian experience. Four of Ishak's close friends, all engineers, left Canada due to the affordability crisis after immigrating. Ishak hopes the next government prioritizes making rental housing more affordable, making this election different from others, as foreign policy and affordability issues take center stage.
Political Shakeup:
Following political turmoil within the Liberal Party and dismal polling numbers, Trudeau announced his resignation as party leader in January. As a result, his Conservative Party rival Pierre Poilievre lost much of his momentum, and new Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney now leads the polls. The new leadership may have defused some of the inflationary anger among Canadians but hasn't solved the root cause of housing unaffordability in Vancouver and beyond.
- Leslie Macfarlane, evicted from her mobile home in Vancouver, now faces rising grocery costs in her new home in Gibsons.
- Inflation during Trudeau's tenure as prime minister has been a significant concern for many Canadians, with the inflation rate reaching 8.1% in June 2022.
- The high cost of housing in cities like Toronto and Vancouver, coupled with rising inflation and food prices, has been a major concern for immigrants like Shahad Ishak.
- The affordability crisis in Vancouver and other cities has been a contentious issue in Canadian politics, with some blaming high immigration targets for exacerbating the problem.
- The Bank of Canada's decision to raise interest rates in 2022 has made housing affordability worse for many Canadians, as rental prices have increased in cities like Toronto and Vancouver.
- Despite political turmoil within the Liberal Party and Trudeau's resignation as party leader, the issue of housing affordability remains unresolved in Vancouver and beyond.
- The affordability crisis in Vancouver has been a major factor in the political shakeup, with Canadians hoping for solutions to the crisis from the new Liberal prime minister, Mark Carney.
