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Originally Posted by Acajack
Such as?
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Demographics and the implications of that.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the demographic changes of Canada (and the West) are coming to a head in multiple respects.
In terms of a generational/age one, the power/wealth is shifting away from the Baby Boomers. They've expectations of comfortable golden years (the youngest is 57, the oldest 75) with the same social support system as their parents. This is going to increasingly put strain on governments to provide that and by extension strain their children/younger generations. The warnings of demographers past become reality by the day.
In terms of a ethnic background one, Canada is changing from a European-descended country to an actual multicultural one, in more the sense of real
diversity (and associated conflict) I mentioned earlier. It leads to more polarization between more diverse cities and less diverse rural areas. How political parties bridge the gap grows harder. Bill Davis' Ontario was very different from Doug Ford's Ontario and likely whoever is Premier in 2051 Ontario.
The total fertility rate has been too low for too long to change these courses - the die is cast.
Another element will likely be one of declining economic prospects in the future. In retrospect, making Canada grow at several percent a year in decades past actually looks fairly easy given the harvesting of both scientific yield and population growth of a huge, resource abundant country. The fact we were able to grow despite very high interest rates and government being relatively parsimonious speaks to that. Now we approach an age of near-zero interest rates and large amounts of government spending, yet growth is much more anemic. It'll be harder to resolve the expectations of 3% growth per year against the likelihood that it will probably be much lower than that.
Is Canada doomed? No. It's not Japan going off a demographic cliff. Nor is it Australia who is far more isolated and dependent on natural resources as the only game it can play. However, I suspect the confluence of internal pressures within Canadian societies are going to make the singular focus of the past on the one axis of conflict a much less important issue.