May 3rd, 2025 | Michelle Ashley

It Is Ok To Be Angry, You Should Be

Anyone telling you otherwise wants to silence you.

Let’s just get one thing out of the way: it’s okay to be angry. In fact, if you're not at least a little pissed off after this election, then either you're extremely wealthy, extremely comfortable, or extremely out of touch. The Liberals just secured 169 seats. Yes, those Liberals. The same party that presided over the worst cost-of-living crisis in recent memory. The same crew that has buried Canadians under a mountain of inflation, unaffordable housing, and ideological distractions. And somehow, they’re back again, smiling and shaking hands like the last eight years didn’t happen.

Now, let’s not kid ourselves. This wasn’t some sweeping national mandate. This wasn’t a wave of optimism. This was a coalition of older voters — particularly Baby Boomers — digging in their heels to protect what they’ve hoarded while the rest of us flail. And make no mistake: they re-elected a government that’s been catastrophic for anyone under 50.

Boomers, armed with their paid-off mortgages, fattened pensions, and smug lectures about how they bought their first house with three part-time jobs and a dream, are the only demographic with a material reason to vote Liberal. For them, the system works just fine. Their homes, bought decades ago for the price of a new car today, have skyrocketed in value thanks to the exact policies that have gutted housing accessibility for younger Canadians. Liberal immigration policies, which have driven up demand for housing without expanding supply, have turned the real estate market into a casino. And guess who’s sitting at the high-roller table? That’s right — the folks who already own property.

But if you call this out — if you say it’s unfair, if you suggest that maybe importing half a million people a year into a housing market that’s already collapsing under its own weight isn’t a stroke of genius — you get labeled angry. Like that’s a bad thing. Like being angry in the face of economic strangulation and political gaslighting is somehow irrational.

Let’s talk policy. Because the Liberals didn’t just win with a neutral record. They won after an economic battering ram hit everyday Canadians in the face, and their fingerprints are all over it. Under Trudeau’s leadership, inflation spiraled. We were told it was “transitory.” Then it wasn’t. Then it was global. Then it was somehow our fault for eating meat or driving cars. Food prices skyrocketed. Rent exploded. And the government’s solution? Grocery store photo ops. Toothless “summits” with CEOs. A few performative finger wags at Loblaws while raking in carbon tax revenue from the same families who now have to choose between heating and eating.

Speaking of carbon taxes, let’s talk about the environmental policies that have become a form of class warfare. Sure, climate change is real. But when your green agenda is designed in ivory towers by people who Uber to the airport twice a week, it stops being policy and starts being punishment. The Liberals have imposed multiple hikes on the carbon tax, knowing full well that working-class families — not corporations, not luxury condo developers, not Amazon — will pay the price. They slap an extra few cents on gas and pat themselves on the back for saving the planet. Meanwhile, the guy driving 40 minutes to a warehouse job is just trying to afford rent.

And then there’s immigration. The sacred cow of Canadian politics. Here’s the reality: Canada has been bringing in upwards of 500,000 newcomers annually, on top of hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers and international students. The Liberals call this a demographic necessity. But what they won’t say out loud is that it’s also been a handy way to juice GDP numbers, provide cheap labour, and — conveniently — inflate housing demand. All of which benefits landlords, developers, and banks. Who owns the most rental property in this country? Take a wild guess.

But say this out loud, and watch the backlash. You’re a bigot. You’re xenophobic. You’re angry.

Yes. Angry. Because for Millennials and Gen Z, immigration without infrastructure is a betrayal, not a benefit. It’s not about opposing newcomers — it’s about opposing a system that uses them as economic kindling while torching the working class. It’s about a government that opens the floodgates without building enough homes, without investing in transit, hospitals, or schools. That’s not progressive — it’s predatory.

The Liberals have mastered the art of silencing dissent by pathologizing emotion. If you’re upset, they don’t debate your point. They don’t examine the merit. They tell you to calm down. They call you toxic. They call you divisive. Which is rich, coming from a party that’s been governed by wedge politics for nearly a decade. Their entire electoral playbook is about dividing the country: urban vs. rural, East vs. West, English vs. French, vaxxed vs. unvaxxed. And yet, when you finally snap — when you say, "Enough!" — they wag their fingers and say you’re the problem.

Let’s be real. The only reason they want you to “stop being angry” is because your anger threatens their grip. Because if enough people stop accepting crumbs, stop thanking the government for scraps, stop internalizing the idea that suffering is normal — then the whole house of cards starts shaking. Calling you angry is a muzzle. It’s a form of control. If they can convince you that your justified rage is an embarrassment, they win. If they can shame you into silence, they get another term.

Well, screw that. It’s okay to be angry. It’s necessary. Anger is clarity. Anger is knowing you’ve been duped and daring to say so.

Because we have been duped. Sold the fantasy of middle-class stability while the ground crumbles beneath us. The Liberals have spent nearly a decade preaching compassion while practicing exploitation. They’ve papered over failures with hashtags, pandered with identity politics, and governed with the smug entitlement of people who’ve never had to choose between rent and groceries.

The irony, of course, is that the Liberals’ biggest supporters — those Boomers with triple the home equity they started with — love to chide younger Canadians for being ungrateful. As if we’re supposed to thank them for voting in a government that priced us out of homeownership, saddled us with record debt, and gave us the gift of being the first generation in modern Canadian history to be poorer than our parents. Thanks, I guess?

These same voters — who benefited from low immigration, abundant land, and exploding asset values — are now telling us to suck it up. To stop complaining. To stop being angry.

No.

We don’t owe them gratitude. We owe them a reckoning. Not the cartoonish kind — not some pitchfork revolution — but a political one. A generational one. One that starts by naming the betrayal for what it is: a cohort of voters protecting their wealth at the expense of the country’s future.

Anger is step one. Step two is organizing. Step three is voting like our lives depend on it — because they do. We can’t afford another round of Liberal delusion. Another round of housing bubbles and inflation theater. Another round of punishing workers while rewarding speculators.

This election was a warning shot. Not just about the Liberals — but about the deep rot in our political culture. A culture where comfort votes for comfort, and the rest of us are told to be polite about it.

So no, we won’t calm down. We won’t stop pointing fingers. We won’t stop demanding a country that works for the people who build it, not just the ones who inherited it.

It’s okay to be angry. In fact, it’s the only sane response that is left.