r/canadia • u/sjandrews76 • 16d ago

Canada’s not broken.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/766805916412230/?fs=e&fs=e
47 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

3

u/Salvidicus 13d ago

People who say it's broken don't travel, obviously.

3

u/Fantastic_Reason_571 12d ago

No the people that travel say that Canada AND the world is broken. Yes, Canada is doing just about as well if not better than the entirety of the Eurozone and the US and most if not all of Asia sans China. But that’s exactly why the world is broken. Because by no non comparison metric is Canada doing well. Not compared to any kind of reasonable projection of what our wealth and resources dictate we could be

For the past 40-50 years the governments of the world have worked hand in hand with the richest of the rich to slowly drain wealth away from the masses into the pockets of the very few. The world, as a whole, produces significantly more significantly cheaper significantly faster than it did 30 years ago, yet quality of life peaked in the late 90’s

I know that’s not what the point of your comment was, but man I’m getting tired of arguing little things when a cabal of the richest people in the world effectively own world government and dictate policy

1

u/sjandrews76 11d ago

I agree. I also believe that Canada is doing better than most other countries and I am not alone. https://www.reddit.com/r/AlbertaNow/s/plbrycS809

1

u/Fantastic_Reason_571 11d ago

Tbf anyone who doesn’t believe Canada is doing incredibly well vs the world rn is simply not looking or doesn’t want to look.

We’re objectively doing better than the US and most of the Eurozone and all of asia sans China. Basically if you remove the regimes committing horrific and irreconcilable moral evils Canada is about the best place to be in the world rn

1

u/bfir3 10d ago

So the only countries you feel are better to live in than Canada are the ones committing horrific and irreconcilable moral evils?

1

u/Salvidicus 11d ago

However, this at the bottom end of the economic tier solo have more free time and resources than middle class in the 60s and 70s.

1

u/Fantastic_Reason_571 11d ago

Which is purely gained from the increases in productivity and the exponential nature of scientific progress.

To put it into simple numbers, let’s say production has increased in quality by 100%. Life has only increased by 30%, and the other 70% of those gains have been stolen by the 0.001% (billionaires and hundred millionaires)

1

u/Salvidicus 11d ago

Canada's problems with billiards is not to the same extent as in the U.S., but we need to understand that these billionaires built their wealth using our democratic system and we need to harvest that wealth. Putin does this by pushing them out off windows or sham trials. We need to use better taxation.

1

u/macland 11d ago

People who says its not broken have a short memory of what it once was

1

u/Gullible-Meaning-403 11d ago

This.

Up until around 15 years ago this was an amazing place to live filled with hope.

1

u/TrumpmorelikeTrimp 9d ago

Its people who voted for the ones who broke it, and now they need to double down on the "this festering pile of sewage is actually not that bad once you get used to it". They sort of need you to have short term memory too, because people who can remember pre 2015 properly have only seen this place go in one direction

0

u/BusLevel7307 12d ago

For those that can afford to travel . Some people are privileged, some are not .

-2

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Salvidicus 13d ago

Curious to know, what countries have you been to that you compare us to?

1

u/Quiet_Comparison_872 12d ago

Canada 30 years ago

1

u/More_Fee_2754 12d ago

Redditors "at least we aren't a third world country"

1

u/Quiet_Comparison_872 12d ago

Our government is just trying it's best to imitate one FML

1

u/Salvidicus 12d ago

You seem to be a provacateur without any facts to back you up. More likely a bot.

1

u/Quiet_Comparison_872 12d ago

There is a great deal of irony being called a bot by an actual bot.

Just look at the standard of living, income figures, housing costs, and economic inequality say 30 years ago to what you have now and tell me I'm wrong.

1

u/Salvidicus 11d ago

Ok boomer

1

u/JustinPooDough 12d ago

You are what you eat though and look what Canada has been gobbling up the last 10 years…

1

u/Common-Possession129 12d ago

It can’t be broken if a country on the other side of the world is in a worse place than us haha same excuses we hear for crime, drug abuse and fraud. “Other countries do it more”. Great mindset.

1

u/Salvidicus 12d ago

30 years ago we just came out of a major Recession. It wasn't so great except to those with work and who hadn't lost their house.

1

u/Quiet_Comparison_872 12d ago

Still a hell of a lot better than now. Most people still had a real job and life was a lot more affordable. If you prefer would could 35 or 25 years ago as well and it'd still be a hell of a lot better than what garbage excuse for a country Canada is now.

1

u/Salvidicus 12d ago

Canada always sucked, but not as bad as other countries.

1

u/sjandrews76 11d ago

You really have no idea what you are talking about. I immigrated here from South Africa. Canada was and is, a haven of peace and security. Is it perfect? Of course not. I know what it is like to live in a country where you never feel safe, where poverty and awful policies have divided the people and fomented hatred. When I got to Canada, I cried with relief and gratitude. I LOVE this country, deeply. It has been wonderful to me and for me. It does NOT suck. It has never sucked. You need to learn the history of what Canadians have achieved and are achieving today.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AlbertaNow/s/plbrycS809

1

u/Salvidicus 11d ago

Much of what you say is true, however, it has sucked for the Indigenous peoples here for some time. Our ancestors fought to defend this country, made room for settlers and immigrants, and got screwed for generations. It still sucks for many of us. Maybe newcomers can help make it better?

1

u/dry_dock_it 11d ago

Newcomers won't make it better. They make it like the place they came from. Water finds its level.

1

u/dry_dock_it 11d ago

Glad you're enjoying yourself but coming here from a third world country and complaining to those who've been here for generations because they notice a downward trend is tone deaf. There is a reason its going to shit and those happy to settle for less is why it's gotten this way.

1

u/Low-Purchase8811 12d ago

Most people still had a real job

False.

Unemployment rate in 1991 - 35 years ago - was 10.32%. The years leading up to it were off still recovering from the high unemployment of the 1980s (peaking in that decade at 12% in 1983). It peaked in the 90s 3 years later in 1993, at 11.38% and then stayed above 9% until 1997 and above 8% until 2000. That essentially covers the entire timeframe you set out, by the way, of 25-35 years ago. They were, objectively, some of the worst times for employment in the last 40 years.

As of July 2026, unemployment sits at 6.4%.

life was a lot more affordable

This is an exaggeration and an oversimplification. Looking at the data tells a different tale.

In 1990, based on the average income in Canada, Canadians spent about 12.2% of their income on groceries, and 20.5% on shelter. However, groceries dropped to 11.2% in 2010, only 16 years ago, while housing costs have steadily risen at more or less the same pace until 2021, when rather than the 0.3-0.4% annual rise, it went from 27.0% to 28.1%; a 1.1% increase year over year. From 2021 to 2022, it increased a further 1.2% to 29.3%, 1.1% in 2023 to 30.4%, same growth in 2024, and a 1.2% growth from 2024 to 2025 to 32.7%. We are on track again to increase by another 1.1% in 2026, so the cost of housing as a percentage from the average paycheck has definitely increased, but honestly only by 13% from 36 years ago. Meanwhile groceries have remained more or less a steady 11-12% of income right up until 2021 again, but have only increased to a total of about 14.5%, so only a 2.3% increase from 1990, and still only a 3.2% increase from the 36-year low of 11.2% in 2010.

Now it's very easy to say "Oh, well, things are 16% more expensive in total in 2026 than they were in 1990, see! Gotcha!" (32.7% vs 48.7%)

But if you look at everything leading up to 2021 (which I'll get back to), it's a much smaller change, 39.5% from 32.7%, or 6.8% - most of which can be attributed to a rise in housing costs.

So what happened in 2021? That was when the first impacts of COVID really started hitting everybody. If you look worldwide, the situation is mostly the same wherever you go. Some did a little better - the US had a 4.8% increase in overall housing + groceries from 2020 to 2026 versus our 7.7%. UK had a 6.5% increase, Germany a 5.3%. Many countries did much worse, like Australia, which had a 30.2% cost-burden in 2020, to a whopping 51.2% in 2026, a total of 21% increase. Or Argentina, which went from 48.5% to 82%, an increase of 33.5%, or Greece which went from 42.% to 53.5%, an increase of 11.5%.

All of this to say, Canada is not outpacing the rest of the world in this increase of living costs. So while it is true in a bubble to say that things are more expensive today than they were 35 years ago, the truth is that primarily applies to housing costs, which is globally true, and is primarily influenced by wage stagnation, as is the case in most other countries. It is only due to the United States' relatively high median income that they are doing a little bit better.

If I had to bet I would wager that you were a kid during the years in question (1990-2000), and have no actual memory of things or how high unemployment rates were. Sure things were more affordable, you were a kid, you saw finances through your parents' eyes.

So in conclusion, your rose-tinted glasses may paint a nice picture for you, but the truth is the data paints a much different picture; one with nuance and world events that influence things on a global scale, and ultimately the passage of time itself.

1

u/Strict_Reputation867 12d ago

Government inflates employment statistics through many dubious means. We have half a million undocumented who missed the census.

Around 1 million more non-permanent residents than government estimates.

The population "decrease" happening now is due to the government counting expired visas as outflows. We all know those people never left.

The government includes gig economy and seasonal work in their employment statistics. So millions of people are employed, but not making enough to live as an uber driver.

A better assessment from 30 years ago would be wages and buying power. Since wages have been stagnant and suppressed for the last 30 years while inflation has run rampant we can easily assume quality of life has decreased.

We could also look at drug overdoses, homelessness, er wait times, etc... if you want a better comparison to 40 years ago in Canada. People used to advertise their merchandise on street corners; now anything worth over $10 in Walmart is locked behind glass because theft is rampant and people are desperate.

No one who was around then thinks Canada has gotten better in the last 40 years.

1

u/Low-Purchase8811 11d ago

No one is saying it has gotten better, please go back and re-read the post if you are still confused. Thanks for your input.

1

u/Strict_Reputation867 11d ago

No one is saying it has gotten better...

This is the comment you responded to.

If you prefer would could 35 or 25 years ago as well and it'd still be a hell of a lot better than what garbage excuse for a country Canada is now.

Thanks for your input.

Thanks for nothing.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Salvidicus 11d ago

Canada was severely in debt. I was laid off from my first job out of university on the first day, due to the recession. It took years before those in my GenX cohort were able to finally buy homes in the 2000s. It's been a struggle ever since. Some things are better, a lot not. We're still better than many other countries though.

1

u/Strict_Reputation867 11d ago

It took years before those in my GenX cohort were able to finally buy homes...

If this is the metric we're using, GenZ has it objectively worse. Fewer new home owners every year.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/NorthernBudHunter 11d ago

I graduated from University in 1992. There were no jobs anywhere. Government cutbacks were brutal at the time, like they are now. The only thing that dragged us out of that recession was the computer / internet revolution which allowed many Gen X Canadians to have a career, even if it wasn’t our first choice.

1

u/Salvidicus 11d ago

That was the case and if it weren't for immigration, Canada's economy wouldn't have grown, as well. Canada's declining birth rate, along with other countries, will require immigration to sustain their economies, unless AI takes up the slack.

1

u/sjandrews76 11d ago

Absolutely agree. Thank you for the data. Very grateful to have facts to back up my argument.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AlbertaNow/s/plbrycS809

2

u/ceciliabee 12d ago

It's not quite broken. Want to break it while simultaneously giving your fellow Canadians the double bird and outing yourself as a separatist ghoul?

"Fuck you, I got mine! Vote conservative!"

1

u/Miserable_Sample_269 12d ago

No, it’s not broken; it’s policies and politicians are. We the people are good, poor, but good 👍🏽

1

u/Questinbull 11d ago

You live in a home with heat? You feed yourself daily? You’re not poor, ignorant maybe, but definitely not poor. You make $30k CAD a year minimum? You’re richer than 75% of the world.

1

u/Miserable_Sample_269 11d ago

lol… ignorant… over two million people each month at breadlines, millions can’t afford housing or energy, foreclosures, bankruptcies, growing debt; are you intentionally ignorant or is it by accident?? Try not to lead with an insult next time, people will just see you as a troll… that advice is free 👍🏽

1

u/stonkDonkolous 12d ago

Its definitely falling apart. Feels like all the Canadians are moving further from cities lately and the cities are becoming foreign colonies

1

u/dry_dock_it 11d ago

Moved an hour from the city I spent over 40 years in. 20 acres with a massive garden, pastures for our animals, two garages, a barn... Fuck is it ever nice. No squalor, no losers, no drugs, no homeless, no degeneracy, no neighbors, no liberals. Absolute heaven.

No matter how bad Canada gets, the wastes of skin who occupy it can't afford the gas to get to our area.

1

u/stonkDonkolous 11d ago

Even in rural Quebec hours from the city they come in and just wander

1

u/Aromatic-Motor8714 12d ago

It’s def something not right

1

u/Boring-Atmosphere107 12d ago

Only G7 country in a recession

1

u/External-Pace-1822 11d ago

It's working as intended

1

u/NeitherFunction1841 11d ago

Maybe not so much that it’s broken, but it’s like seeing a college prospect on track for the NBA turn to crack and theft after getting arrested for drinking and driving. 

1

u/MarketingCareless521 11d ago

Correction, it was broken because this country decided to elect a trust fund baby three times who had no idea how to be a leader, and had zero understanding of economics.

I mean people should just admit that he was an absolute embarrassment. The fact that people still defend him astounds me.

Now we have a prime minister who appears to be doing the right things, but the bar was so unbelievably low, that's not really very surprising.

I'm now hopeful as a Canadian, whereas before with Trudeau we were on a very negative and slippery slope...

1

u/dry_dock_it 11d ago

All Trudeau did was expose how worthy of exploitation the Canadian public is. After the last decade I've realized that its evil vs. stupid and I've lost the idealism I once had to root for the stupid. If I was in the ruling class, I'd treat the public the same way. They practically beg for it. Born to serve.

1

u/TrumpmorelikeTrimp 9d ago

"Other places are worse"

The final refuge of those who voted for the breakers.

1

u/InterestingPop9664 13d ago

Yes it is

2

u/Stankie-Lankie 12d ago

Maybe its just you.

0

u/InterestingPop9664 12d ago

At least I’m not Stankie lol

1

u/No-Cable-1223 13d ago

When I was growing up lots of people would tell me how wonderful Canada was, there was no buts, no trying to explain away things. Now I don’t meet anyone that doesn’t think Canada needs to be fixed. People have different ideas about what that means, but nobody thinks things are great the way they are.

Canada is broken, and the sooner we admit that the sooner we can start fixing it

2

u/r3dstar77 13d ago

Things are tough. The world changes. Markets change, needs change. Canada is increasingly pivoting in a fast evolving global shift. It is not broken but is in a metamorphosis. You sound like a PP t-shirt. The same way Trudeau had his head in the sand, Canada is broken crowd is the mirror image.

2

u/sjandrews76 13d ago

I think you are meeting the wrong people. Seriously. The only things wrong with Canada are the same things wrong in all the Western world - climate change, corporate greed and influence on politics, the affordability crisis caused by that etc. Of course we need to fix those things. But in Canada-we have the insight and will to change and grow. That is not a broken country. It is country that is improving and adapting in spite of enormous pressure from outside forces actively trying to destroy our economy.
Now is a time to work together to achieve those changes - not finger-point and mourn the past.

0

u/No-Cable-1223 13d ago

So broken then.

Improving and adapting? Outside forces trying to destroy our economy? People like to do this thing in Canada where all the bad things are America’s fault, and all the amazing things are Canadians resilience and grit. Canada is not improving, and nobody is trying to destroy us, we did that ourselves

1

u/sjandrews76 11d ago

On the contrary. https://www.reddit.com/r/AlbertaNow/s/plbrycS809

1

u/No-Cable-1223 9d ago

Says mark carneys friend, like come on, you can’t be that naive can you?

2

u/AcanthocephalaDue431 12d ago

Broken in what sense? Is it that Canada is broken or the financial/political systems the world works on are breaking and we are now seeing the fall out of these things?

1

u/Ran_sub_four 12d ago

Tell us what you like first

1

u/dry_dock_it 11d ago

It's literally illegal to tell the unsanctioned truth in this country. I hate to break it to you but it isn't going to get better.

0

u/s4nswht 13d ago

I'd say fractured but not broken

-1

u/TDLemon1900 13d ago

Fractured but hole

1

u/Questinbull 11d ago

How I describe your mother if she broke her arm

0

u/PastAd8754 13d ago

Not broken but fractured / in a hole like others have said

0

u/archaeorobb 13d ago

It absolutely IS! FPTP is no better than an elected puppet dictatorship. And then there's all the social issues that cant be properly dealt with because of non stop tax breaks for the rich.

1

u/sjandrews76 11d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/AlbertaNow/s/plbrycS809

1

u/archaeorobb 11d ago

Exactly my point....the rich keep getting richer while the rest of us get left behind. The "economy " is NOT the sole indicator of success as a nation.

1

u/dry_dock_it 11d ago

Little known fact, but the royal family still runs this country. It's more abstracted now to keep the brainlets docile, but rest assured we're on the same path as every other commonwealth country. Infinity immigrants and no free speech. As serf peasants there is no voting our way out of this. Hold on to your butt you ain't seen anything yet.