Preville on Politics
Toronto incomes are on the decline (or, The Friday Pessimist, Thursday edition)
Posted on May 1, 2008 by Philip Preville
Given that I’ve been harping on the state of the declining economy for nearly a year now, you’d think I’d be happy to have my prognostications repeatedly proven correct. At this point, however, it feels like piling on. Today’s Statscan Daily provides the latest census data on incomes. Dig a little deeper and you discover that Toronto incomes are on the decline—not a relative decline, but a real decline. I can’t find those numbers myself, but here’s a snippet from the e-mail notice I just received from Jack Layton: “The 2006 census data reveals a significant downward trend for Toronto families of 2.4 per cent despite a national increase in income of 3.7 per cent and a provincial increase of 1.4 per cent.”
Haven’t had the time to digest this yet, but it seems like very pertinent information, dontcha think?
Final note: henceforth, I am changing the name of The Friday Pessimist to allow myself to blog on the matter any day of the week. Such entries shall henceforth be known as The Paniconomist.
Philip Preville
Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.
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Lowen May 8, 2008 at 4:27 p.m.
Wake up to the new urban economy. Please welcome the new low-wage earners into the club, The membership fees for the first 5000 have been waived by the powers that still be!