Vancouver, Canada — When Leslie McFarlane learned that she and her husband were being kicked out of a mobile home park outside Vancouver last year, she said she felt “absolute rage.”
Her home was to be demolished as part of a redevelopment of a massive low-rise apartment.
The 67-year-old retiree knew how difficult it would be to find a rental property in the infamous, expensive, downstream area. She correctly predicted: her housing hunt turned out to be futile.
“We couldn’t afford anything,” MacFarlane told Al Jazeera.
Couples’ housing costs have almost tripled, with apartments that are half the space skyrocketing from about $1,100 to $3,000. They decided to leave town and return to the Gibsons, home of MacFarlane, a small coastal community in British Columbia.
“I remember when I was raising kids, if you had a job, you could afford a place to rent. It may not be the best place to rent, but you could afford something.
The cost of a small town, which is only accessible by ferry, said “it’s higher than everything,” especially for the food.
As grocery costs go up, she shop less.
“It’s reaching the point where you buy a hand basket of food a week instead of a cart.”
For MacFarlane, rising housing affordability and grocery costs are two of the biggest issues of this year’s federal election, set on April 28th.
Inflation after the pandemic
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised “Sunnyway” when he was first elected in 2015, but many Canadians were caught in an inflationary storm as Canada’s affordability crisis escalated during his tenure.
Since Trudeau’s reelection in 2021, the costs of consumer goods have risen dramatically. According to Statistics Canada, in June 2022, during the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation rate rose 8.1% from the previous year, the biggest change since 1983. Bank of Canada Governor Tiff McClem attributes the high inflation rates not only to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also to the transport of pandemic-related delays.
Inflation has slowed since then, at 2.3% now, but the actual price remains much higher than in 2020.
Canadians are struggling to keep up with rising costs of living.
According to David McDonald, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, consumers feel a deeper impact on regular purchases such as food and gasoline.
“People feel that inflation is more personal,” he said.
The affordability of Canadian housing was a concern for years prior to the pandemic, but McDonald said it was “much worse” as the Bank of Canada began to raise interest rates.
Prices began to rise in 2022, and in 2023 it rose to 5%. The Bank of Canada ultimately reduced the fare in the middle of 2024. The rate is currently 2.75%.
“You weren’t safe anywhere,” McDonald said. “It didn’t matter if you were renting or not, it doesn’t matter if you own it.
In some Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver, McDonald said the rent increase was “swaying.”
Since March 2020, when asked about the average rent across Canada, it has risen by almost 18%.
Regardless of the country or political persuasion, McDonald says inflation means bad news for powerful politicians.
“[Inflation] It didn’t just happen here. McDonald said. “If you had been in power over that period, you’d be hit with the election box in the next election.”
Immigration pressure
Some Canadians have begun to point to Trudeau’s high immigration targets as a reason for the housing costs of under-reaching.
“They grew their population almost three times faster than residential stocks,” Conservative leader Pierre Polyable said last year. He denounced “a massive, uncontrolled population growth that burdens our housing, healthcare and job markets” under Trudeau.
Trudeau was elected on a platform that involved making immigration discourse more aggressive and multicultural, according to Irene Bleu Emrado, a professor of political and sociology sociology at the University of British Columbia and co-director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Immigration numbers rose until 2020, when the pandemic caused a “dramatic drop” in the number of people coming to Canada.
When the economy began to open in 2021, Canadian businesses, universities and provincial governments felt a great need for more workers, students and more, especially after small migrations, Bloemraad said.
The federal government has rapidly increased the number of temporary visas for workers and students.
“There’s an argument that the government is way too offensive to do this,” she said. Because the rapid influx of new people in certain metropolitan areas puts pressure on those housing markets.
In a second half of 2024 environmental poll, 58% of Canadians thought the country was accepting many immigrants, starting from 27% in 2022.
“Immigrants tend to be an easy target for people’s concerns because it is identifiable,” Bloemraad said. “People forget that home prices are really high even before Covid. This hasn’t happened overnight.”
The Trudeau government reduced immigration forecasts last October, setting targets for around 395,000 permanent residents planned for 2025, from 485,000 permanent residents planned for 2025. Bloemraad pointed out that the expected number for 2025 is a little higher than 2019, calling for cuts rather than a massive shift in direction.
Affordable Crisis Compounds
Shahad Ishak, a Toronto resident, said Trudeau might have bitten more than he could have bitten on the election promise.
“He sold a lot of promises to people,” she told Al Jazeera.
When she moved from Kuwait to Canada in 2013, she could potentially buy a home.
“But from there it got worse. At this point, in my life I will never buy a house.”
And it wasn’t easy to settle in Canada.
In 2016, she used her savings and had to pay six months ago. That wasn’t the only thing she faced with barriers due to her lack of Canadian experience.
She had to take away a minimum wage job, including one in a call center in “very tough situations.”
She eventually got a job at a bank, but was hired at the bottom of the career ladder as a bank teller despite having nearly nine years of experience working in corporate banking in Kuwait.
This job didn’t pay more than the minimum wage. She eventually quit. Because the weekend babysitting for her two kids was so expensive that the job was pointless. Ishak returned to school and is currently a doctoral student in sociology.
Four of her close friends, all engineers, left Canada due to the post-immigration affordability crisis.
“That makes me wonder,” Ishak said, “How do people survive here? Because their pay isn’t enough.”
She hopes the next government will prioritize making rental housing more affordable.
According to Ishak, the election is different not only because of the affordability crisis, but also because foreign policy becomes an important factor.
Trudeau calls it quits
In January, after political turmoil and disastrous vote counts for the Liberals, Trudeau announced his resignation as leader.
According to Nanos polls, Conservative leader Poliebre, who was actively campaigning for Trudeau’s removal, was on track to win the sweep victory and preferred to win a “comfortable” majority.
Trudeau’s resignation removed a lot of wind from Polyavel’s sails. The “huge” advantage of the Conservative Party began to fall free.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threat of annexation have led to anxiety, and Canadians downgraded affordability on their election priorities list.
Trudeau’s alternative to new liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney is now leading the polls and leveraging the public’s perception that he is the best politician to negotiate with Trump.
Economist McDonald said Trudeau’s resignation could have “washed this election” of inflationary rage.
“Normal people are still really upset that prices are 30% higher than they were five years ago on grocery items,” McDonald said. But he added that Canadians at this point are probably angry at the US.
“But the cost of living is the second closest in most places.”
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