The hardest things to do in Canada

Allan: 

I think many Canadians will agree with me on this one. These days, one of the hardest things to do in Canada is simply getting a well-paying job with benefits and forging a future for yourself.

I suppose I’m lucky in that I have a decent job — not the greatest job ever, but it works for me and provides me with what I need. But two things have happened in Canada during the past 35-or-so years:

1. The cost of living has absolutely skyrocketed and owning a home will literally be impossible for many
2. Salaries have all but completely stagnated

Growing up in Canada in the 1980s, my dad had an average job with an average salary working as a salesman. My mother was a stay-at-home Mum. 

We were a family of four living in a nice house in the suburbs that was paid off, we had two cars in the driveway and we took at least one nice holiday a year. 

My brother and I both played hockey and we had full sets of equipment. At one point, my parents even considered putting my brother and me in private schools.

Try living that sort of lifestyle today in a major Canadian city as a family of four living on one parent’s “average income.” 

It would be everybody crammed into a two-bedroom apartment, one car, no holidays and certainly no private schooling for the kids.

Today, I know people in their 40s and 50s living with roommates in Toronto and Vancouver, simply because they want to live in a safe neighbourhood and don’t want to fork over upwards of 50% of their income to pay rent.

Times have indeed changed here.