As a mortgage broker, Ron Butler speaks to a lot of Canadians who are in transition periods in their life. He recently took to social media to share a concerning new trend, though: Canadians, particularly young people, abandoning the country.
It used to be that the transitions people made were moving homes or changing jobs. Now they’re moving countries.
“I spoke to a young woman in her 20s this week and it was kinda heartbreaking,” Butler recently posted. “She’s well-educated, has a good job she is striving to get better at and believes she has no economic prospects.”
No prospects. What a sad thing to say. But it’s what more and more people are increasingly feeling.
“Most poignantly,” Butler adds, “she believes she will never own a home in Canada: her parents are renters so there’s no huge gift coming. And although she lives outside the [Greater Toronto Area] her rent is too high to achieve any meaningful level of savings that might form a down payment.” A number of her friends have already left Canada for these reasons.
While hosting on Toronto talk radio station AM640 recently, I asked listeners to tell me if they were thinking of leaving the country for affordability reasons. The calls we received weren’t just people who were thinking of going—although there were many of those. We also heard from people who had already made firm plans and had a set exit date.
I spoke with two different callers who were uprooting their families to move to Portugal and Poland. They felt they didn’t have a future here and believed that life would be better for them elsewhere.
This is an undeniably growing trend. Social media and message boards are full of people telling their stories of escape.
YouTuber Adam Nucci has received hundreds of thousands of views for his recent videos about his plans to move away. He cites seven reasons to move in one video, and the top reason is the high cost of living. Other reasons include the rise in crime, the increasing woke ideology, and the terrible health-care system to the list.
Then there’s YouTuber Alina Macleod. “I am sad to say that Toronto has changed and not for the better,” says Mcleod at the beginning of her video on why she’s glad she abandoned the city. She points to the cost of living and the general sense of urban decay. That video has half a million views.
The Saleh family are a Canadian couple with a popular online channel who cater to a mostly Muslim audience. They have over one million followers. They made a recent viral video about their plans to leave Canada. While one of their cited reasons was that they wanted to move to a more Islamic society, affordability problems actually came higher on their list. They are an example of how people of all walks of life and in every community are having this discussion.
Traditional media is beginning to pick up on this phenomenon. A recent Globe and Mail article profiled a couple of GTA families who were leaving. Portugal and Spain were the chosen destinations. One of the couples, both professionals, went from living in an apartment in Toronto to purchasing a literal castle in their new European town. Food and cellphone bills, among other expenses, are also cheaper for them in Europe.
“What an epic failure of our political leadership,” Ron Butler wrote. He’s right.
There is no greater sign that a country is on the decline than for average people to say they no longer feel they have a future there and decide to leave.
It’s deeply tragic that Canada is now in this situation. There’s also no use arguing it. The people who are posting their complaints online aren’t doing this to score political points. They aren’t naming specific politicians. They’re just speaking openly and honestly about their daily struggles.
Yet, make no mistake about it, poor leadership is what has got us to this point. If we want people to feel they have a future in Canada, we have to get serious about turning things around.
