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Bruce Dowbiggin

The Housing Debacle: How Trudeau Turned Off Millenials

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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/

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN Award-winning Author and Broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin's career is unmatched in Canada for its diversity and breadth of experience . He is currently the editor and publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster website and is also a contributor to SiriusXM Canada Talks. His new book Cap In Hand was released in the fall of 2018. Bruce's career has included successful stints in television, radio and print. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster for his work with CBC-TV, Mr. Dowbiggin is also the best-selling author of "Money Players" (finalist for the 2004 National Business Book Award) and two new books-- Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever for Greystone Press and Grant Fuhr: Portrait of a Champion for Random House. His ground-breaking investigations into the life and times of Alan Eagleson led to his selection as the winner of the Gemini for Canada's top sportscaster in 1993 and again in 1996. This work earned him the reputation as one of Canada's top investigative journalists in any field. He was a featured columnist for the Calgary Herald (1998-2009) and the Globe & Mail (2009-2013) where his incisive style and wit on sports media and business won him many readers.

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Bruce Dowbiggin

Are the Jays Signing Or Declining? Only Vladdy & Bo Know For Sure

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We were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers home opener on Thursday. The defending World Series champs came from behind to beat Detroit 5-4. The big hit was a three-run homer from a player named Teoscar Hernandez off AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal

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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Bruce Dowbiggin

From Heel To Hero: George Foreman’s Uniquely American Story

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“The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.”— George Foreman

For those who thought Donald Trump’s role progression (in WWE terms) from face to heel to face again was remarkable, George Foreman had already written the media book on going from the Baddest Man in the World to Gentle Giant.

It’s hard for those who saw him as the genial Grill Master or the smiling man with  seven sons all named George (he also had seven daughters, each named differently) to conjure up the Foreman of the 1970s. He emerged as a star at the 1968 Olympics, winning the gold medal in heavyweight boxing. His destruction of a veteran Soviet fighter made him a political hero. In an age that already boasted a remarkable heavyweights Foreman was something unique.

Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle and Jimmy Ellis were still bankable household names for boxing fans— but on the downside of famous careers. They each had their niche. Foreman was something altogether different. Violent and pitiless in the ring. Unsmiling as he dismantled the boxers he met on his way to the top. He was the ultimate black hat.

With the inimitable Howard Cosell as his background track , he entered the ring  in 1973 against the favoured ex-champ Frazier, coming off his three epic fights with Ali. While everyone gave Foreman a chance it was thought that the indomitable Frazier, possessor of a lethal left hook, would tame the young bull.

Instead, in under two rounds of savagery , Foreman sent Frazier to the canvas  six times. Cosell yelled himself horse crying, “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” This was a whole new level of brutality as the poker-faced Foreman returned to his corner as the most feared boxer on the planet. For good measure Foreman destroyed Norton in 1974.

Fans of Ali quaked when they heard that he would face Foreman’s awesome power in Africa in the summer of 1974. They knew how much the trio of Frazier brawls had taken from him. The prospect of seeing the beloved heavyweight champ lifted off his feet by Foreman’s power left them sick to their stomach. Foreman played up his bad-boy image, wearing black leather, snarling at the press and leading a German shepherd on a leash.

Everyone knows what happened next. We were travelling the time in the era before internet/ cell phones. Anticipating the worst we blinked hard at the headline showing the next day that it was a thoroughly exhausted Foreman who crumbled in the seventh round. The brilliant documentary When We Were Kings is the historical record of that night/ morning in Kinshasa. The cultural clash of Ali, the world’s most famous man, and the brute against the background of music and third-world politics made it an Oscar winner.

But it’s largely about Ali. It doesn’t do justice to the enormity of Foreman’s collapse. Of course the humiliation of that night sent Foreman on a spiritual quest to find himself, a quest that took the prime of his career from him. It wasn’t till 1987 that he re-emerged as a Baptist minister/ boxer. With peace in his soul he climbed the ranks again, defiantly trading blows in the centre of the ring with opponents who finally succumbed to his “old-man” power.

Instead of the dour character who was felled by Ali, this Foreman was transformed in the public’s eye when he captured the heavyweight title in 1994, beating Michael Moore, a man 20 years his junior. He smiled. He teased Cosell and other media types. He fought till he was 48, although he tried to comeback when he was 55 (his wife intervened)

And, yes, for anyone who stayed up late watching TV there was the George Foreman Grill, a pitchman’s delight that earned him more money than his boxing career. HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant commented that “There was a transformation from a young, hard character who felt a heavyweight champion should carry himself with menace to a very affectionate personality.”

There was a short-lived TV show called George. There was The Masked Singer as “Venus Fly Trap”. And there were the cameos on Home Improvement, King Of The Hill and  Fast ’N Loud, delighting audiences who’d once reviled him. He cracked up Johnny Carson.

Foreman’s rebound story was uniquely American. Where Canadians are enthusiastically damning Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky for political reasons, Foreman never became a captive of angry radicals or corporate America. He went his own way, thumping the bible and the grill. Rest easy, big man.

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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