Nanos sees 'cocktail of pessimism' driving down Canadians' perception of future living standards

Toronto -

Canadians' views on future generations' standard of living are at the lowest point since data started being collected on the topic by Nanos Research nearly 10 years ago, said the company's chief data scientist Nik Nanos on the latest episode of Trend Line.

Responses to the question "Do you think the next generation of Canadians will have a standard of living that is higher, the same or lower than Canadians have today?" were first collected in May 2012 by Nanos Research. Back then, 26 per cent of respondents said future generations would have a higher standard of living and 37 per cent said it would be lower. Fast forward to November 2021 and just 11 per cent of respondents said Canadians would have a higher standard of living in the future. Sixty-three per cent responded that the standard of living would be lower.

"That 63 per cent is the highest that we've seen since we started tracking this about 10 years ago," said Nanos on Trend Line.

For Nanos, a combination of factors could be driving the pessimistic responses.

"There's still people that are worried about the pandemic… if you happen to be in British Columbia, you've dealt with floods, you dealt with fire," said Nanos. "Now we have inflation, where people are just worried about paying the bills for basic items."

Add it all together and you have what Nanos calls a "cocktail of pessimism" driving our perception about the future standard of living.

As Nanos explains on the show, the findings of the survey should be a message to political leaders.

"I think not just for the Liberals, but for all of the federal parties, here's what people want to hear about what are … parties proposing, including the government," said Nanos.

You can watch the full show by clicking on the video attached to this article or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.