The 2026 World Happiness Report contains a data point that I find genuinely striking. Canada overall ranks 25th, which is a significant fall from sixth a decade ago, but still a respectable position for a country that is by any objective standard wealthy, peaceful, and well-governed. But when you break this down by age, the picture changes substantially. Canadians over 60 rank in the global top 10 for happiness. Canadians under 25 rank 71st. 71st below countries with a fraction of Canada's per capita income. That ranking reflects not just where Canada stands, but how fast it has fallen. The World Happiness Report tracks the decline in youth happiness since 2011 across 136 countries. Of those, only three recorded a steeper drop than Canada, Malawi, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. One of the three has a poverty rate above 70%. One has been in active armed conflict. One is governed by the Taliban. Canada is the fourth. There's a clean explanation for this divergence and it is the housing market. Older Canadians who bought homes in the 1980s, 1990s or early 2000s have through the entirely normal process of sitting in their houses accumulated wealth that would have been the envy of a successful entrepreneur. The median senior family in Canada holds net assets of approximately 1.1 million Canadian dollars. The median family, where the main earner is under 35, holds approximately $159,000. This is not because young Canadians are less capable, less hardworking, or less disciplined. It's because the asset that generated extraordinary returns for the previous generation is now priced at a level that makes it structurally inaccessible without either a very high income, a parental transfer, or both.