Generation Squeeze's Hard Truths

A listener recently sent us a message: "Time to take the gloves off. Stop the kumbaya and love B.S. Time for boomers to pay." So in this episode, Angie Chan and Paul Kershaw explore what we should be asking older Canadians to do in our fight for generational fairness, and how we can have hard conversations about generational injustice with older family members and friends, without just making them feel guilty or defensive. They also tackle a deeper question that many changemakers wrestle with: will love or anger throw the knock-out punch?

Doug Ford's Ontario government recently announced that parts of the province's Greenbelt would be opened up for development of homes. In this episode of the Hard Truth's podcast, we chat about why that's not a good idea — and why, more generally, we shouldn't be trying to solve our wallet problems by neglecting our climate problems.

In this episode, we chat about the work Gen Squeeze does in advising various levels and institutions in government. We discussion recent examples of this work, the reasons we think this work is important, as well as the ways in which those who follow us can support us in doing it better.

We continue the 10th anniversary discussion we began in the previous episode — chatting about we've been up to, some of the lessons we've learned along the way, and what we're looking forward to in the next 10 years as we work to preserve the sacred (a healthy home, a healthy childhood, and a healthy planet).

We registered gensqueeze.ca as our website in November 2012. We figured we'd use this occasion to look back at what we've been up for the last 10 years. So this episode features a discussion about the origins of Gen Squeeze, how we've changed and developed over the years, and where we find ourselves today.  Be sure to tune in again next week to catch the second part of our discussion. 

Paul Kershaw chats with Kareem Kudus and Molly Harris about a housing report they co-authored for Gen Squeeze. While home prices have stalled and even declined somewhat, they are still at harmful levels. So what more, aside from interest rate hikes, can be done to address the issue?  The report, titled "Celebrating Stalling Prices for Canadian Homes: Why Canadians Need Statistics Canada to Improve Measurement of Housing Inflation in the Consumer Price Index", can be accessed here: https://www.gensqueeze.ca/straddling_the_gap_2022.

In this episode, we chat about the results of a poll that Gen Squeeze commissioned earlier this year. Among other things, the poll found that the majority of Canadians support a modest surtax for those who live in homes worth more than $1 million. We chat about the implications of the poll's findings, why we need to start closing the home ownership tax shelter, and lots else.  You can download the full results of the poll here: https://www.gensqueeze.ca/housing_wealth_poll_2022

Former Green Party leader (and current Green Party leadership contestant!) MP Elizabeth May chats with Paul Kershaw about taking our #GenFairnessChampions pledge, the increasing polarization in Canadian society and politics, the importance of addressing the climate crisis, and a whole lot else.

Paul Kershaw and Andrea Long interview Caroline Lee, a researcher with the Canadian Climate Institute (CCI). They chat about 'Damage Control: Reducing the costs of climate impacts in Canada" — a report recently published by the CCI. You can access the full report here: https://climateinstitute.ca/reports/damage-control/ Also, you can check out the Gen Squeeze's climate solutions framework here: https://www.gensqueeze.ca/climate

This Halloween edition of the Hard Truths podcast features a discussion about government budgets. Mary Shelley's classic novel 'Frankenstein' serves as a backdrop, but we don't just make lazy references to the book—e.g. "Boo! Government budgets are scary just like Frankenstein's monster." No, ours is a deeper engagement. We use some of themes in the book to help illustrate what budgets are, why they're important, and why we should seek to intervene in their creation. Find out more about our budget analysis work here: https://www.gensqueeze.ca/budget_analyses