No pressure, but you’ve got some work to do with Grandma and Grandpa this Christmas season.
If you’re going to see your grandparents this year, especially if you know they vote Liberal, you have a personal responsibility to have an honest discussion with them about how your life is versus how their life was.

The bottom line is, Gen Z (those of you born from about 1997 to 2012), you know the system doesn’t work, but it’s REALLY important you tell your parents and grandparents WHY it doesn’t. Older generations built wealth within a system that rewarded them, then pulled the ladder up and called it “character” when the next generation couldn’t climb it.

Gen Z isn’t lazy or entitled. You’re responding rationally to housing that’s unattainable, transit that’s unsafe because many criminals are released on bail, ideology that funds crack pipes instead of treatment for addiction, unchecked immigration that’s created scarcity, and spending with no results, leaving a massive amount of debt for your generation to pay for. Gen Z gets a fat bill but no dinner. Most boomers’ equity has skyrocketed, many have cushy pensions, and they’re thriving. When people who benefited most from the system refuse to fix it, or don’t acknowledge that it’s hurting the next generation, that’s not resilience, it’s selfishness.

Now, I don’t want you to alienate your family or get into an awful Christmas dinner fight by calling Grandma and Grandpa selfish, but I do need you to have an honest conversation with them: the stakes are not the same. By supporting the party that is taking away opportunities from you, they are hurting your future.

Let’s take 1970 as an example. Ask your grandparents how much they paid for their first house.

My parents built a brand-new house in 1973 for $25,000 and had a combined annual income of about $15,000.

So just under two years’ salary would cover the cost of a brand-new house. That same house today will sell for around $700,000.

Now let’s do the math for Gen Z. The average house price in Canada today is around $700,000, and the average combined annual income is about $106,000, according to Statistics Canada.

So your generation will need to work 7 years to cover the cost of a home, if you can even save up enough for a down payment.

That’s not the same situation as your grandparents, and you need to tell them.

The system is not working for you, and the people who control the system are not working for you.

This Christmas season, I implore you not to make it awkward and get into political fights. Instead, truly explain to Grandma and Grandpa the disadvantage your generation has that they didn’t. Explain that you’re afraid to have kids because you don’t think you can afford them or find childcare; that you don’t think you’ll ever be able to afford a home; that rent is all you see in your future; and that buying fresh strawberries feels like a luxury.

Similarly, according to the Bank of Canada’s CPI (Consumer Price Index), $14 worth of groceries in 1973 would cost about $100 in 2025. Everything is different; it costs so much more.

Don’t get me wrong, Grandma and Grandpa will have some safe advice that you shouldn’t have everything at your age, and they are absolutely right. It should be hard. I certainly didn’t have everything when I was 25. I only made a couple of hundred dollars a month on maternity leave, and we did not have disposable income. We had to learn how to budget, and we didn’t live frivolously. That’s a great character trait to learn and build, I get that, but your generation doesn’t even have the opportunity to make what they did.

The government has spent so much money on projects with no return, all while turning down billions of dollars from other countries that want our resources. We shouldn’t be this far in debt. Canada should be the richest country in the world.

Grandma and Grandpa need to think about YOU when they vote, not themselves.

It’s also important to explain to Grandma and Grandpa and Mom and Dad that you don’t have hope. Ask them if they had hope when they were your age, how excited they were about their future, and what they had to look forward to. Because the worst thing you can give society and anyone is no hope. Canada is lost and divided because the government in charge, the Liberals, made it this way, and so many boomers keep voting for it, which gives them permission to keep making the same mistakes, all while handing their grandkids and great-grandkids the mounting bill and burden.

Grandma and Grandpa need to stop giving the Liberals permission. They need to stop supporting the party that is destroying their grandchildren’s opportunities.

It’s time for you, Gen Z, to get hope and opportunity back. You are in the driver’s seat. I believe this next generation will invent things we can’t even imagine, and you will challenge the system to change because it’s not working for you. You will call out the BS of politicians who say one thing to your face and the exact opposite behind closed doors, all while driving up the cost of everything. You won’t vote for a pleasant personality; you will vote for results.

You guys have the power, and now you must convince Grandma and Grandpa to see what you are living, and to change their vote from Liberal to Conservative.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Go save Canada.

Michelle Ferreri is a political commentator, strategic communications and media consultant, and the former Member of Parliament for Peterborough—Kawartha