Canadian here, working out of our downtown Toronto office today.

I'll meander with this reply - the topic itself has a nebulous, uncertain quality to it.

The situation is pretty bad but, as usual, it's very difficult to actually put a proper description and anecdote on some of the things that have been happening.

Reddit et al as usual have been calling for protests, and have for some time - see r/canada, r/ontario, r/canadahousing, the usual bunch. Plenty of memes there if you're in need of them for a Friday afternoon.

In truth, we have had protests throughout the pandemic for various reasons; almost no protest was covered by the media. We've had a handful of marches in Toronto, long before the "Freedom Convoy" scare which was, as far as I could tell talking to friends who live/work in Ottawa downtown, a fabrication by the media - which would explain why it was covered to such great degree. I don't want to turn this post into a conspiracy theory type thing, just calling it as I see it. A nothingburger that was spun for some purpose unknown to me.

Now, back to prices.

The situation is as bad as it seems, probably worse than I can tell. Those of us in tech are sort of okay; tech companies here are okay with regular salary bumps that, at the very least, offset inflation. We know we are fucked and no amount of money at the moment will really feel like it's "enough" because the inflation has made people's incomes, essentially, worthless for the time being. Even if you're well off, if you were making a million/yr before now you're making 200k/yr. Your purchasing power has fell through the ground. I feel very bad for most of the population who is not in this luxurious position (and it is luxurious, by all accounts). A few years ago we were at peak golden age, now we are slowly coming down and it's a hard crash for many people. I see a lot more homeless on the street here. These are "fresh" homeless - you can see it because their body language, over all appearance has not yet degraded.

The Bank of Canada is trying to do something to control the housing prices/inflation, however whatever they do will negatively impact the local affordability.

Not sure what the way out of it is, to be honest. But one thing is for sure, and that is that none of this is new and should not surprise people. It was quite obvious that a "wave" of massively increased housing prices was moving from West to East Canada over the last decade; and with it, everything else followed.

I've always felt bad for people here for awhile now because it's been a train wreck in slow motion, and I don't want to see the local population of people who at the very least keep the culture going - all the small shops, the flower shops, the barista/coffee/tea shops, the random used book stores, the impromptu concert events that happen, and so on be displaced and removed from the city they know and contribute to. My perennial question is always, "How can they afford to live where they work, with prices like these?" Putin/Russia didn't cause this, and people blaming the inflationary boogeyman on the bombing of some Ukranian village that the Western world can't even agree on how to spell/pronounce, is not the reason.