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“Up North: On Top — Life in Canada, Home of the World’s Most Affluent Middle Class.”
— New York Times, April 30, 2014

This was the headline just a decade ago. The American middle class, “long the most affluent in
the world...lost that distinction.” The new leader at that time? Canada — seen as a model for
the rest of the world.

With our increasing longevity, we seem to be trading our focus on the ‘fountain of youth’ for the ‘fountain of usefulness,’ where having purpose outweighs a desire for youthfulness. In a recent survey, 83 percent of those ages 65 and older say it’s more important to be “useful than youthful” in their retirement years.

Think kids these days are getting too much screen time? There’s another demographic struggling to put down their phones: Baby Boomers. As one 83-year-old put it: “I’m so attached to this thing. If I leave the house and forget (it), I’ll go back.”

As we look ahead to a new year, the sense of uncertainty many of us feel today may not beentirely new. While Canadian consumer sentiment recently turned negative, and the numberof times “uncertainty” appears in the Canadian press reached its highest level since thepandemic, consider that we’ve been here before.