The question Canadians are asking today, after Finance Minister François Philippe Champagne tabled his first budget under Prime Minister Mark Carney, is simple. How, exactly, will any of this make my life more affordable?
The government calls this a generational budget, an investment in the country’s future. But for most Canadians, the question is whether they can afford the present. The promise of long-term transformation means little when the bills keep piling up.
Across the country, people are sitting at kitchen tables running the same numbers again and again. Mortgage. Rent. Groceries. Utilities. What can wait another month? What cannot? These are not abstract calculations. They are quiet acts of endurance, repeated in millions of homes every night.
According to an Ipsos survey for Global News, most Canadians did not expect this budget to make much difference in their day-to-day lives. They view inflation as the main driver of their rising costs, followed by American tariffs and what they consider excessive government spending and high taxes.
Nearly seven in 10 say balancing the books matters more than running another deficit. When asked what they most wanted from this budget, Canadians did not talk about industrial strategy or nation-building. They talked about survival: lower costs, lower taxes, and reduced spending.
The budget offered little to change that perception. There was no meaningful tax relief, no clear plan to bring down inflation, and no concrete response to American tariffs. The sword of Damocles still hangs over Canadian households and businesses, threatening to make a difficult situation even worse. For most middle-class families, the cost of living remains unchanged. Life will not get easier next month, or the month after that.
That tells us something profound about where the country stands. Canadians are not angry so much as exhausted. The old expectation of steady progress has been replaced by quiet resignation, a sense that life will not automatically improve with each generation. The postwar promise that hard work would lead to security and upward mobility no longer feels certain. People no longer expect government to make their lives better. They just hope it will not make things worse.
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There was a time when extraordinary circumstances justified extraordinary spending.
During the Second World War, and again during the COVID-19 emergency, Canadians accepted massive deficits because the mission was clear, and the cause was shared. The government asked for sacrifice, and Canadians gave it willingly.
That contrasts with today. Canadians are under pressure, but they are not united by a single purpose.
Yet Ottawa still invokes the language of collective sacrifice, urging Canadians to tighten belts and share the burden as though the country were mobilized once again for a great cause. The problem is that most Canadians do not see that cause. Framing the current moment as another national emergency feels like overreach.
The case has not been made for a dramatic expansion of spending, deep cuts, or higher taxes. Canadians want government to do better, not necessarily to do more.
They understand that deficits can be justified in hard times, but they no longer see them as harmless. After years of record outlays, they are asking what all that money achieved. Borrowing for hospitals, housing and defence still makes sense. Borrowing for bureaucracy does not.
What people see instead is a government that spends more and delivers less, mistaking activity for achievement. They have lost patience with the notion that another wave of deficits will somehow fix what the last wave did not.
The government projects a deficit of $78.3 billion for this fiscal year, nearly double the forecast made last fall. It promises to bring that down to about $56 billion by the end of the decade. To offset some of the increase, Ottawa says it will cut 16,000 public service jobs and find $60 billion in savings over five years.
It calls the plan a generational investment. There is more than $100 billion for infrastructure and productivity, $25 billion for housing over five years, and a commitment to boost defence spending to meet NATO expectations. There is also a new fund to strengthen Canada’s economy against trade disruptions from the United States.
For ordinary Canadians, there are smaller measures: a modest increase to the Canada Child Benefit, a home renovation credit, and new incentives for first-time buyers. All welcome, but limited. None of them changes the math of daily life.
Despite the rhetoric, this budget is about endurance, not relief. It invests heavily in the future while leaving most households to navigate the present on their own. The government is betting that long-term spending on housing supply, infrastructure, and innovation will eventually ease the pressure. But Canadians are asking whether they can make it that far.
The Carney government inherits a country where the middle class, once the defining feature of Canadian life, feels like a memory. Growth has stalled. Productivity is flat. Population expansion, which once masked these weaknesses, has become a source of strain. Our cities are crowded but short on housing, transit, and opportunity.
The federal workforce is larger than ever, yet confidence in government performance is smaller than ever. Canadians know the math does not work. They have been told that deficits are temporary, inflation is transitory, and prosperity is just around the corner. After years of reassurance, they struggle to believe it. They see a government that is busy but not effective.
Canadians are not anti-government. They are anti-waste and wary of overreach. They want Ottawa to focus on what matters most: housing, health care, security and productivity. They want a plan grounded in the real economy, not in bureaucratic imagination. If government wants to spend, it must show results. If it wants to borrow, it must show an end date. And if it wants to lead, it must convince Canadians that the country still has a direction.
Champagne brings energy and optimism to the job. He can chart a new course, but Canadians will not grade him on speeches or slogans. They will judge him on whether their lives start to feel manageable again.
Budgets are about more than numbers. They are statements of national intent. What Canadians will remember is whether, in the months ahead, life felt a little easier, and whether Ottawa finally remembered who it is working for.
Darrell Bricker is Global CEO, Ipsos Public Affairs, and co-author (with John Ibbitson) of Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk
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