During the recent federal election campaign and in its aftermath, a youth advocacy group has been exerting increasing influence on federal political parties, particularly the newly elected Liberal majority government.
Generation Squeeze came to the attention of the federal parties by calling for immediate action on issues facing Canadians age 40 and younger, including stagnant incomes, rising housing prices, high cost of living, and mounting student loan debt.
Generation Squeeze started as a research project on intergenerational inequality in Canada at the University of British Columbia (UBC). It has since evolved into a national non-profit group with the aim of creating a lobby group for younger Canadians.
The research team morphed into an awareness group with the backing of several supporters such as the United Way, the Vancouver Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Mowafaghian Foundation, and Vancity Credit Union.
According to the Generation Squeeze website, the group has more than 16,500 registered supporters from different parts of Canada.
The team gained tremendous attention when it gathered 51 submissions for its creative video campaign during the election, which gave young Canadians the opportunity to submit videos showing how they were being socially and financially squeezed compared to other generations.
Generation Squeeze uses both awareness and lobbying to place demands on the federal parties. In particular, their research showed that the federal government currently spends $20,868 per person age 65 and over, $7,185 per person aged 45-64 and $4,349 per person under age 45.
After the victory of prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau, the youngest party leader in the race, Paul Kershaw, founder and executive chair of Generation Squeeze, told the Manitoban that he is optimistic about the potential influence of Generation Squeeze moving forward.
“We had some parties during the campaign coming to us and seeking our advice and endorsements on certain issues and referring to our research in their own platforms, this shows that we had substantial influence,” Kershaw said.
“However, our research on our platform shows that by comparison with the dollars all the parties invested in people aged 65 and older, they only offer younger Canadians pocket change.”
Kershaw, an associate professor at UBC’s school of population and public health, emphasized that the new government will only benefit young people if organizations like Generation Squeeze monitor them before they table the 2016 federal budget.
“At Generation Squeeze, we know a better generational deal means uniting generations in future budgets. We will be working with newly elected MPs in all parties to make intergenerational solidarity a priority,” Kershaw said.
“From the comprehensive study of the federal election platforms, the Liberal Party platform would increase spending on retirees more than any other national party while providing less money for post-secondary and child care than did the NDP and Greens. We will also emphasize that the Liberal platform is relatively strong at containing medical care spending.”
“This in turn left fiscal room for the Liberals to propose more new spending for families with children than any other party,” Kershaw said.
