Canada’s Neoliberal Experiment: How Capitalism is Failing Us All

Neoliberalism is the belief that the economy works best when businesses have more freedom, and the government has less control. But how has this panned out for the people? Cloaked in the language of “efficiency,” “freedom,” and “common sense,” neoliberalism has quietly transformed Canada from a welfare-state model into a marketplace where human needs are secondary to profit.

We live with the consequences and feel them daily: skyrocketing inequality, a brutal housing crisis, and collapsing public services. Most importantly, we have a generation of youth living in a time where life itself is unattainable, forcing them to run in a race they never signed up for.

Before the rise of Neoliberalism, Canada followed a more Keynesian approach, characterized by strong social programs, public investment, and the understanding that government exists to care for people, not corporations. Welfare, housing programs, and universal benefits, like the Family Allowance, exist as rights, not luxuries. But beginning in the 1980s, governments at the federal and provincial levels shifted sharply. Influenced by global leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Canada adopted policies that promised economic freedom but delivered growing inequality.

In Ontario, Mike Harris’ Common Sense Revolution (1995-2002) didn’t just adjust policy; it changed the entire social landscape. His government accelerated the neoliberal shift through a series of aggressive reforms:

• Deep cuts to welfare, slashing supports that low-income families relied on for basic survival.

• The “spouse in the house” rule penalized women, especially single mothers, by reducing benefits if they were suspected of living with a partner.

• Cuts to housing programs, worsening homelessness and pushing vulnerable people into unstable living situations.

• Deregulation and corporate tax breaks allow businesses to profit while weakening public protections.

• Privatization of public services, shifting essential care and infrastructure from public responsibility to profit-driven companies.

These policies were packaged as “responsible,” “efficient,” and “common sense.” In reality, they hollowed out the social safety net and turned poverty into a political tool. Instead of addressing structural inequality, the system began framing marginalized people as the problem itself. The burden fell hardest on those already pushed to the margins: Indigenous communities, immigrants, racialized groups, single mothers, people experiencing homelessness, and incarcerated individuals. They were branded “undeserving,” a classic neoliberal strategy that divides people into the “worthy” and “unworthy poor,” all while justifying the withdrawal of public support. It goes deeper than that. In Toronto, we have all witnessed firsthand how Canada’s housing crisis destroys lives. Within the city, there are thousands of people just like you and me, outside, homeless, feeling the frigid bite of winter that kills people every year. Neoliberal policies eliminated federal housing programs, financialized real estate, and let corporate landlords dominate the market.

Instead of pointing fingers and telling people to “work harder,” we need to examine the system that creates these conditions in the first place. Housing under capitalism is not failing; it is working exactly as designed: to generate profit, not safety/stability. Economic growth under neoliberalism doesn’t “trickle down,” it floods upward. While CEOs, investors, and wealthy homeowners accumulate wealth, low-income and working-class Canadians face: stagnant wages, job market instability, rising living costs, and food insecurity.

Today, just a few corporations control most of Canada’s grocery market, allowing them to raise prices with impunity and extract profit while households struggle. Cuts to unemployment insurance, welfare, disability supports, and federal transfers have hollowed out the programs meant to protect us. Instead of universal supports, we have targeted, means-tested benefits that fail to reach the people who need them.

Neoliberalism reframes poverty as a personal moral failure rather than a systemic issue. It isolates individuals instead of acknowledging collective responsibility. This isn’t some abstract political term. Its effects shape our daily life and future:

• Tuition in Ontario remains high because public funding per student has not kept pace with rising costs, pushing universities to rely more heavily on tuition fees and market-driven revenue sources.

• Rent is increasingly unaffordable because housing has become financialized, treated as an investment asset rather than a basic necessity, allowing corporate landlords and investors to drive up prices faster than wages.

•  Job prospects feel more precarious because the labour market has shifted toward temporary, contract, and gig work, while labour protections have struggled to keep up with these changing employment models.

• Healthcare access is becoming more strained, as underfunding and staffing shortages lead to longer wait times and greater reliance on private contractors, raising concerns about equity and affordability within a publicly funded system.

• Personal debt has become normalized because government restraint and limited public spending have shifted more of the cost of education, housing, and essential services onto individuals.

Neoliberalism conditions us that success is individual, and uses failure as a tool. It convinces us to blame ourselves rather than the system.

Canada likes to brand itself as compassionate, progressive, and fair. But beneath that image lies a country increasingly shaped by neoliberal capitalism, the current system that keeps the one percenters in the 1%, impoverishes the entirety of the working class, and fractures the collective structures we rely on.

If we want a future rooted in justice, equity, and dignity, we need to question the ideologies that underpin our country.