Jagmeet Singh on generational unfairness harming younger Canadians

Generation Squeeze's Hard Truths

Dr. Paul Kershaw and Angie Chan chat with federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh about tackling the massive inequalities faced by younger Canadians. This far-ranging, in-depth interview also touches on:

• How lowering the voting age could strengthen our democracy
• The need for greater investment in the building blocks of a healthy society--such as safe, stable housing and jobs--which contribute more to our overall wellbeing than the medical care we receive
• How the federal government should apply an intergenerational lens when making decisions, akin to how budgets already must assess the impact of policies and programs on women and gender diverse people
• How we can shine more light on generational unfairness hidden in federal budgets

• Our goal to create a Minister for Generational Fairness
• ... and buckets of pierogi!

Our website has a full transcript of this episode. A video with the complete interview is also on our YouTube channel, where you'll get to admire Mr. Singh's impressive bookshelf.

PS: If you're interested in the discussion about how long it takes a young person to save a down payment across Canada, check out our ⁠Straddling the Gap 2022⁠ report, in which we crunch the numbers for housing affordability in all provinces and many cities.

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Highlights: "One of the biggest contributors to us being healthy is the fact that we've got a home, and that we can eat food, or that we are not in poverty," Singh says. "We are better as a community when we take care of each other... If we care about healthcare...we also need to then make sure we care about our neighbours that aren't able to get housed, who can't find a place to rent or to own. We're also really not gonna be a healthy society if people are living in poverty. If people can't get childcare so that they can go to work and then they can support themselves and their families."

"We have to take care of our seniors, but we also need to make sure that young people have a fair shot, young families have a fair shot ,and that there isn't this inequality that exists right now," he says. "The way we do it is we are responsible with where we spend our resources, and we also need to look at increasing revenue in a responsible way as well."