Middle-class dream slipping away for many

Federal government’s talk not being matched by action

Canada’s federal political parties have spent ample time and effort jockeying for position as the voting choice of the middle class. And nobody has done so more conspicuously than Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, who from the 2015 campaign onward put the term at the centre of their messaging on nearly every issue (regardless of whether it made an iota of sense in context).

But a new Ekos-Canadian Press poll suggests there’s a growing problem with the strategy of speaking first and foremost to the middle class.

For the first time, more respondents now identify themselves as being poor or working class than middle class. Once, 70 per cent of Canadians placed themselves in the latter group. That number is now down to 43 per cent. And the contrast is even more striking in the Prairie provinces, all of which saw more respondents classify themselves as working class than middle class.

Moreover, the perception of middle class status is declining for each generation: People under 35 are equally likely to see themselves as working class as middle class (not to mention nearly three times as likely to be poor as to be upper class), which means that the younger citizens who voted for change are particularly far removed from the Liberals’ message.

It’s not entirely clear how our public self-perception has evolved. But there are a few obvious suspects.

Most notably, the increased precarity facing the working class looms as a primary reason why people might see themselves as having fallen short of achieving a secure middle-class lifestyle. And the Liberals have only exacerbated matters by telling young Canadians they have no choice but to accept constant insecurity — while doing their utmost to reinforce that point by catering to elite friends and international capital at the expense of workers.

While running for office, the Liberals pitched an end to unfair tax breaks as part of their appeal to the middle class. But after first giving in to CEOs by preserving the stock option loophole, they’re now backtracking on even a small amount of revenue sheltered by the upper class through private corporations. (Of course, it doesn’t help matters that the Conservatives and their anti-tax allies are demonizing that proposal with their own false portrayal of a middle class funnelling income through corporations.)

But with their promises of increased revenue through progressive taxes having fallen by the wayside, the Liberals are now looking for ways to make up for it.

Meanwhile, other elements of a middle-class lifestyle are similarly distant for groups that might have been able to expect them a generation ago.

Perpetually increasing tuition fees and costs of living are pushing students into an everdeeper hole at the start of their working life.

Home ownership is becoming increasingly unaffordable — which only figures to get worse as interest rates rise.

The delay in (or absence of ) financial stability is in turn pushing Canadians to delay other milestones, such as having children.

And where an average worker might once have anticipated a relatively secure retirement through a workplace pension, those have largely been sacrificed in the interests of corporate raiding and public-sector austerity.

We then shouldn’t be surprised a plurality of Canadians see themselves as falling short of the level of affluence being catered to by the likes of Trudeau. But given the working class’ new-found strength in numbers, it may not be long before our political leaders have little choice but to start paying it some long-overdue attention.

People under 35 are equally likely to see themselves as working class as middle class.