Bruce Dowbiggin
The Housing Debacle: How Trudeau Turned Off Millenials

The numbers are out, and it’s unanimous. If you’re a young couple with kids, still want to buy a detached home in a location that has steady, well-paying jobs then Alberta remains the last refuge for Canada’s stressed-out middle class Millennials (those not in tent cities calling for the eradication of Israel).
But the widow is closing rapidly. Others have noticed. In 2023-2024 over 200,000 others took heed and made the province their new home. (No word if they were told about snow on Victoria Day by their realtor.) No surprise that most of them are flooding in from Ontario and B.C. where $750 K buys you an unheated shed behind your parents’ home.
According to Zoocasa $750 K. is the average price for a home in booming Calgary. Not a giveaway, but compared to Canadian Real Estate Association’s April benchmark price for a single-family home in the Greater Vancouver Area ($2.8 million) or the Greater Toronto Area ($1.3 million) it’s a positive steal. Edmonton’s average price clicks in at $493 K (you’d have to put up with Oilers fans) while $417,500 gets you a roof in Red Deer, located between the two metropoli.
As we say, get ‘em while they’re hot. Between numbered holding companies and offshore mystery shoppers, the Alberta market is poised for further generous bumps— particularly if the prime minister’s hopes of quashing Alberta’s energy industry don’t reach fruition before his demise in the next federal election.
Investors are on the prowl. Take Grand Prairie. Please. Rim shot. The city in the province’s northwest (average single-family home price of $379,262) is heating up as an investment. Says Zoocasa. “Despite its lower price, the city saw a 10% year-over-year price increase, highlighting its potential as a good investment opportunity.”
You get the picture. Grand Prairie. Medicine Hat. Lethbridge. Cochrane. For bargain investors you can buy a view in the Maritimes or a percolating economy in Saskatoon. But you can’t combine the two as well as Alberta does.
This runaway housing spiral is a bonus for current owners and a burden for young people. But it’s the worst for the Liberal federal government that likes to throw money at problems but never makes it stick— particularly in the housing market. (Justin Trudeau and his urban planners are now reaping the results of their brainwave to prioritize shoebox condo construction over single-housing units). The most recent boondoggle has finance minister Chrystia Freeland shovelling bucks to provinces for new housing— particularly in the green-conscious or lower-income demos.
The focus-group-approved Housing Accelerator Fund, a $4B initiative, will be topped up with an additional $400 million “to encourage municipalities to incentivize building by making transformative changes, such as removing prohibitive zoning barriers”. Also no natural gas stoves or three-car garages.
It all sounds wonderful at the photo ops but like Trudeau’s unfulfilled promise to plant two billion new trees, the idea of this government building 1.2 million new homes is risible. If they can get past zoning hurdles, financing restrictions and finding enough trades people it means building a preposterous home an hour for the foreseeable future.
Then there is the bind created by the jump in interest rates after Trudeau promised they’d stay low forever. Mortgage payment as a percentage of income for the median home price fell to 58.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2024. But that came after the bank’s affordability monitor stood at its worst levels since the 1980s to the end of 2023. Loose credit from Trudeau’s Bank of Canada supports this unreasonable cost level.
(That also doesn’t address Canadian rental properties. Between 2011 and 2016, the market lost 322,600 private rental units with monthly rents below $750. Investors are content to sit on empty properties, gentrify them into “condos” and flip them when the market improves.)
Numbers, numbers, numbers. It’s true. But the housing bind is a unique political problem for the Liberals, too— and will be for the Conservatives when they make it into office. Earlier generations of Boomers and Gen Xers have had their housing crises. Boomers were hit by the collapse of Ontario’s real estate market combined with 18 percent interest rates from the late 1980s to mid 1990s.
Gen X was sideswiped by the 2008 Investment collapse that wiped out savings. The reaction they received from their elders, who’d experienced the 1930s Depression and WW II, was ”suck it up, buttercup”. Take that whine and shove it.
However coddled these cohorts had been, they’d also experienced tough love from authority figures. While it wasn’t “bare feet and barrel staves” there was always a check on expectations. When Paul Martin and Ralph Klein, among others, put on the hair shirt in the mid 1990s to cure the excesses of Pierre Trudeau’s spending it was a sobering period of self-examination for Boomers and Gen Xers alike.
But Millenials are the generation of the 17th-place ribbon for meritorious attendance. Indulged and rewarded beyond their accomplishments they have come to personify DEI entitlement. No one is cut from the team. Everyone gets favour. Tick the boxes, and the world shall be yours.
The tent cities are the worst manifestations of this cohort. But, their feet having rarely touched ground, the expectations the rest of the Millenials place on government to award them homes and great jobs is not leavened by history’s example. They are clearly not amused by Happy Ways unless they get a guaranteed payout for being so perfect. Abacus polling shows the Conservatives at 32 percent among 18-29 year olds, surpassing Trudeau’s formerly strongest base, now at 28 percent. If those numbers don’t scare the Liberals, nothing will.
Trudeau has lived in government housing the past decade, so this is all news to him and his trust fund. But the headline on Election Night just might be Revenge of the Millenials. Not that it will take us back to the days of affordable housing.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Now for pre-order, new from the team of Evan & Bruce Dowbiggin— Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL & Changed Hockey. From Espo to Boston in 1967 to Gretz in L.A. in 1988 to Patrick Roy leaving Montreal in 1995, the stories behind the story. Launching in paperback and Kindle on #Amazon this week. Destined to be a hockey best seller. https://www.amazon.ca/Deal-Trades-Stunned-Changed-Hockey-ebook/dp/B0D236NB35/
2025 Federal Election
Will Four More Years Of Liberals Prove The West’s Tipping Point?

The 1997 political comedy Wag The Dog featured a ruling president far behind in the polls engaging Hollywood to rescue his failing ratings. By inventing a fake war against Albania and a left-behind “hero”— nicknamed Shoe— the Hollywood producer creates a narrative that sweeps the nation.
The meme of hanging old shoes from the branches of trees and power lines catches on and re-elects the president. In a plot kicker, the vain producer is killed by the president’s handlers when he refuses to stay quiet about his handiwork. The movie’s cynicism over political spin made it a big hit in the Bill Clinton/ Monica Lewinsky days.

In the recent 2024 election the Democrats thought they’d resurrect the WTD formula to spin off senile Joe Biden at the last minute in favour of Kamala Harris. Americans saw through the obvious charade and installed Donald Trump instead.
You’d think that would be enough to dissuade Canadians who pride themselves on their hip, postmodern humour. But you’d be wrong, they don’t get the joke. Wag The Carney is the current political theatre as Liberals bury the reviled Justin Trudeau and pivot to Mark Carney. If you believe the polling it might just be working on a public besotted by ex-pat Mike Myers and “Canada’s Not For Sale”.
As opposed to Wag The Dog, few are laughing about this performative theatre, however. There are still two debates (English/ French) and over three more weeks of campaign where anything— hello Paul Chiang—can happen. But with Laurentian media bribed by the Libs— Carney is threatening those who stray— people are already projecting what another four years of Liberals in office will mean.
As the most prominent outlier to Team Canada’s “we will fight them on the beaches…” Alberta’s premier Danielle Smith is already steering a course for her province that doesn’t include going to war with America on energy. She asked Trump to delay his tariffs until Canadians had a chance to speak on the subject in an election April 28. Naturally the howler monkeys of the Left accused her of treason. She got her wish Wednesday when Canada was spared any new tariffs for the time being.

Clearly, she (and Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe) have no illusions about Carney not using their energy industry as a whipping post for his EU climate schemes. They’ve seen the cynical flip in polls as former Trudeau loyalists hurry back to the same Liberal party they abandoned in 2024. They know Carney can manipulate the Boomer demographic just as he did when he called for draconian financial methods against the peaceful Truckers Convoy in 2022.
Former Reform leader Preston Manning is unequivocal: “’Large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it.’“ So how does the West respond within Confederation to protect itself from a predatory Ottawa elite?
Clearly, the emissions cap— part of Carney’s radical environmental plans— will keep Alberta’s treasure in the ground. With Carney repeating no cancellation of Bill C-69 that precludes building pipelines in the future, the momentum for a referendum in Alberta will only grow. The NDP will howl, but there will be enough push among from the rest of Albertans for a new approach within Canada.
In this vein Smith even wants to approach Quebec. While it seems like odd bedfellows the two provinces most at odds with the status quo have much in common . “This is an area where our two provinces may be able to coordinate an approach,” Smith wrote this week. That could include referendums by the middle of 2026.
Perhaps the best recipe for keeping the increasingly fractious union together is a devolution of power, not unlike that governing the United Kingdom. While Westminster remains the central power since 1997, there are now separate parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that put power closer to the citizen, so that local factors are better recognized in decision making.
With so little uniting the regions of the country any longer, devolution might provide a solution. What form could decentralization take within Canada? A Western Canada Parliament could blunt predatory federal energy policies while countering the imbalances of Canada’s equalization process. Similar parliaments representing Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, Ontario and B.C. would protect their own special interests within Canada. Ottawa could handle Canada’s international obligations to defence, trade and international cooperation.
While the idea is fraught with pitfalls it nonetheless remains preferable to a breakup of the nation, which four more years of Liberals rule under Mark Carney and the same Trudeau characters will likely precipitate. Smith’s outreach case would be the beginning of such a process.
None of this would be necessary were the populations of Eastern Canada and B.C.’s lower mainland remotely serious after snoozing through the Trudeau decade. The OECD shows Canada’s 1.4% GDP barely ahead of Luxembourg and behind the rest of the industrialized world from 2015-2025. As we’ve said before the Boomers sitting on their $1 million-plus homes are re-staging Woodstock on the Canada Pension and OAS. As with Wag The Dog, they’re not getting the joke.

When the Boomers award themselves another four years of taxapalooza and Mike Myers and the other “Canada Not For For Sale” celebs head south to their tax-avoidance schemes how will the Boomers say they’ve left Canada better off for anyone under 60? We’ll hang up and listen to your answer on the TV.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
Are the Jays Signing Or Declining? Only Vladdy & Bo Know For Sure


If that name sounds familiar, Teoscar was a Toronto Blue Jay from 2018-2022. He pounded 121 homers in the span as part of the Jays’ order. But when Toronto decided it needed bullpen help he was traded to Seattle in 2022 for pitchers Erik Swanson and Adam Macko. While Swanson has battled injuries and Macko is no-go, Hernandez keeps pounding the ball.
In his one year in Seattle he had strikeout problems but did hit 26 homers with 93 RBIs. In the winter of 2023-24 he signed as a free agent with the aforementioned Dodgers. Batting behind Shohei Ohtani he launched 33 homers and 99 RBIs. He won the All Star Home Run Derby. His key hit in Game 5 of the World Series propelled L.A. to the title. The stacked Dodgers liked him enough to give him a three-year, $66 million contract.
Why are we telling you this? Because the Blue Jays also started their 2025 season at home, matched against the Baltimore Orioles. And while there are reasons to believe the Jays will not replicate their 74-win disaster of 2024, there remain the old bugaboos of injuries and pitching. In the four games against the division rivals they need to beat, Jays’ pitching gave up 24 runs while scoring 18—nine of them in one game.
The splashy acquisition of 40 year old HOF pitcher Max Scherzer has already gone sideways as a bad thumb has put him on the IL. The new stopper, Jeff Hoffman, was rejected on medical grounds by two other teams before Toronto’s money made him healthy. The rest of the bullpen— a disaster in 2024— got off to a rocky start with Orioles hitters playing BP against them. They’ve already DFA’d one pitcher and called up two more from the minors. The re-made pen performed well in Game 4, but how it holds up in their next 158 games is a mystery.
On offence, while their rivals in Boston and New York added sexy pieces to their rosters the Jays were only able to acquire veteran switch-hitting Baltimore slugger Anthony Santander. More typical of their other signees is ex-Cleveland 2B infielder Andres Giminez who in 2023 had the lowest average exit velocity of all AL batters (84.8 mph), and led the AL in percentage of balls that were softly hit (21.7%). He does play a slick second base.
The winter story line for the Jays offence was what to do about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, the erstwhile star-dust twins who were— along with Cavan Biggio— supposed to guarantee titles when they emerged in 2019. Biggio is gone, so the other two carry the credibility of the management team of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins. From the outside the Jays seem paralyzed to act.

While the Jays dithered, the price for players like Guerrero and Bichette soared. Using Juan Soto’s Mets $765 M deal as a yardstick Guerrero turned down a Jays offer of just under $600 M, saying he was done talking during the season. If Shapiro/ Atkins had anticipated the market Guerrero would have cost a lot less in 2023-24. If there is no progress by the trading deadline the Jays will be forced to get what they can in a trade.
Shortstop Bichette— a gifted player who battled injuries in 2024—is likewise up for a new deal. He has started strong in 2025 and would command a handsome return in a trade. He says the Jays are waiting to see what happens with Guerrero first. Having sold the pair for years to their loyal fans, having to trade them will be a massive PR blow. And while Jays’ national audience can be an advantage, having a whole country pissed with you is devastating.
The rest of the secret sauce for a Toronto comeback revolves around one of their hitting prospects taking a step forward. Any/ all of Will Wagner, Alan Roden, Addison Barger or Leo Jimenez can have a job if they show their bats are for real. Otherwise Shapiro and Atkins will hope that Dalton Varsho, George Springer and Alejandro Kirk can find a little magic in their aging bats.
A failure to retain talent may prompt fans to recall that Rogers decided that Shapiro and Atkins, who dumped Teoscar, were worthy replacements for the previous GM who’d walked away. The man Schneider and Atkins were hired to improve upon— Canadian Alex Anthopoulos— has made the Atlanta Braves a dominant team. Since AA moved to Atlanta they’ve won 90, 97, 38 (Covid year), 88, 101, 104, 109, 89 games. They’ve won a World Series and two other playoff series. They won six straight NL East titles before injuries sank them last year.
The Braves have developed young everyday superstars like Ronald Acuńa Jr. who don’t get picked off second base. They have built a pitching staff largely from within, not splashy FA signings. They have swagger without cockiness. They are set for years to come.
The Blue Jays? Since AA left they’ve won 73, 67, 32 (Covid), 91, 92, 89, 74 games. They’ve won zero postseason games while missing the playoffs in four seasons. The players they traded are starring for other teams in the postseason. They are again employing an inexperienced company guy as manager.
While it’s true that the sun can’t shine on the same team every day, Jays fans believe it would be nice if the great orb would find their club as it did back in the 1992/93 World Series days. Instead of the reflected glory of past stars winning for other teams. Patience is thin. And time is ticking.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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