Demographics as neutral facts to plan around

They conclude that demographic shifts are neither good nor bad and stress planning to manage threats and opportunities.

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Episode notes

Canada’s housing crisis. Youth unemployment. Immigration debates. A broken healthcare system.

What if we told you a book published in 1996 predicted almost all of it?

In this episode of The Missing Middle, Cara Stern and Mike Moffatt revisit the Canadian classic Boom, Bust & Echo to explore how demographics, especially the aging of the baby boomers, reshaped Canada’s economy, housing market, job prospects, and public policy.

We break down:

• Why youth unemployment was a policy choice

• How demographics quietly drive housing prices

• What governments got right — and very wrong

• Why immigration policy, real estate, and healthcare are deeply connected

• And how Canada ended up with a generational economic imbalance

This isn’t just history. It explains why life is harder for young Canadians today and what choices led us here.

If you care about housing affordability, jobs, immigration, public policy, and Canada’s economic future, this episode is for you.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

00:49 Why Boom, Bust, and Echo (BBE) still matters

03:00 What the book got right and wrong