We Can No Longer Afford Canada as It Exists Today

There was a time when Canada stood for opportunity. You worked hard, you got ahead. You saved, and you bought a home. You earned an education, and doors opened. That belief — that promise — built this country.

But today, that promise is broken. And if we don’t change course, we’re not just heading toward economic hardship. We’re heading toward something much more dangerous: a Canada we no longer own — financially, politically, or socially.

A recent federal report by Policy Horizons Canada, Future Lives: Social mobility in question, paints a bleak picture of 2040. It describes a country where hard work no longer matters. Upward mobility disappears. Post-secondary education becomes irrelevant unless you’re already rich. And home ownership? Only if your parents bought in. The rest will rent for life, locked out of wealth, locked out of power.

The report wasn’t leaked by critics or spun by commentators. It came from inside government. Our own tax-funded research warns that we’re on track to become a two-tier society — a modern aristocracy defined by inheritance, not effort.

Let that sink in: Canada’s own policymakers are preparing for a future where Canadians no longer believe they can build a better life. And in many ways, we’re already there.

The average home in Toronto is over $1.1 million. In Winnipeg, we’re creeping toward $400,000. Food prices are rising faster than wages. Tuition is soaring. Small businesses are suffocating under red tape. And worst of all, we’re now spending more just to service our national debt than we do on health care transfers to the provinces.

We are borrowing money just to keep the lights on. This isn’t sustainable — and it certainly isn’t responsible.

So the question is simple: How long can a nation live beyond its means before it gets taken over by those who don’t?

Canada’s federal debt now sits above $1.2 trillion. That’s roughly $30,000 for every Canadian — including infants. And that number doesn’t include provincial and municipal debt, or the future costs of the aging population, collapsing infrastructure, or climate policies with no real return.

Last year alone, we spent $54 billion on interest payments. That’s money gone — nothing built, nothing fixed, just handed to creditors. And those creditors are increasingly foreign banks, hedge funds, and even governments. That means we are now beholden — financially and politically — to people and institutions outside our borders.

And when a country loses control of its finances, it loses control. Period.

If you want to see where this ends, look at Sri Lanka. Look at Argentina. Both borrowed too much, for too long. Both defaulted. Both saw their governments replaced, their institutions crumble, their people suffer. And they didn’t fall to bombs or invasions. They fell to math.

Now I’m not saying Canada is Argentina. Yet. But the warning signs are there. A country that can’t afford its own spending becomes vulnerable — to influence, to buyouts, and to collapse.

Meanwhile, what are politicians doing? Promising more. More handouts, more programs, more bureaucracy, and more votes bought with your children’s money. The new currency in Canada is future debt. And no one seems willing to say it out loud: We can’t afford this anymore.

We can’t afford a federal government that takes in $500 billion a year and still runs a $40-billion deficit. We can’t afford ministries that spend hundreds of millions on consultants while veterans sleep in tents. We can’t afford climate plans that kill jobs but don’t reduce emissions. And we definitely can’t afford leaders who believe the answer to every problem is more government.

Canada needs a reset — not in slogans, but in structure.

We need to shrink government, not grow it. We need to cap spending, not raise taxes. We need to stop treating borrowed money like free money. And we need to restore the basic principle that prosperity comes from work, savings, and ownership — not dependence.

Because if we don’t, we’re not just heading toward economic inequality. We’re heading toward a country we no longer recognize. A country owned by the few, managed by the unelected, and held together by borrowed time.

So what do we do?

We speak up. We stop buying the lie that more spending equals more compassion. We stop expecting government to solve every problem. And we start pushing for policies that make

Canada strong, stable, and sovereign.

That means prioritizing Canadian-made goods. That means encouraging home ownership, not punishing it. That means cutting red tape, not jobs. That means restoring the dignity of self-reliance, and rejecting the false comfort of government control.

Because at the end of the day, the future is ours to shape. But only if we still own it.

If we keep going the way we’re going, we won’t.

And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.