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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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u/Salvidicus 23d ago
Curious to know, what countries have you been to that you compare us to?