Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa on Tuesday.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Illegal tariffs. Sovereignty threats. Mockery of our military. Even bullying children serving as cadets. Many observers on both sides of the border have described these antics by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration as childish, juvenile and beneath the dignity of high office.
By contrast, most Canadians take pride that our Prime Minister looks like the adult in the room. Decorum matters. Serious leadership matters.
Since being the adult means more than maintaining composure while others throw tantrums, Mark Carney has also levelled with Canadians. He has warned that a more dangerous and uncertain world requires Canada to break from some of its old fiscal habits. That’s why he is spending billions more on defence, nation-building projects and support for Canadians caught in the trade war, including his latest promise of $7.5-billion.
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The challenge is that these new commitments arrive on top of deficits that were already projected to exceed $65-billion in 2026-27. If the times call for government to spend more in response to extraordinary circumstances, they also require the courage to spend more wisely and revisit spending decisions politicians have avoided for years because they feared the electoral consequences.
Exhibit A remains Old Age Security.
My regular readers know the facts. Ottawa is on track to spend more than $17-billion annually on OAS benefits for retirees in households with six-figure incomes. That’s more than double the latest tariff-relief package, and it recurs year after year. Retired couples can still receive roughly $18,000 annually even when their household income reaches about $185,000 before clawbacks begin.
At the same time, more than 400,000 seniors remain poor.
This is no longer defensible – as a remarkably broad coalition calls out.
Bank of Nova Scotia is among the latest to encourage OAS reform, concluding “few files show the strain on legacy policy architecture more clearly than those meant to support Canadians as they age.”
Scotiabank’s position affirms calls from Build Canada, Social Capital Partners, the Missing Middle Initiative, the Basic Income Canada Network, the Fraser Institute, the Maytree Foundation and even the Health Officers Council of B.C. They all encourage Ottawa to revisit OAS subsidies for financially secure retirees.
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When organizations with very different world views converge on the same conclusion, political leaders should take notice.
The support extends well beyond think tanks.
The Globe and Mail editorial board endorses change. So does the editorial board at Canadian Affairs, the publisher of The Hub and the lead columnist at the National Observer. They span Canada’s ideological spectrum.
So has the Senate, in a report written by Senator Andrew Cardozo.
Most importantly, Canadians have reached the same conclusion. Multiple national polls show that roughly three-quarters of Canadians, including about three-quarters of seniors, support reducing benefits for higher-income retirees in order to improve support for vulnerable seniors and strengthen affordability investments elsewhere. This includes nearly eight in 10 voters for Liberals, Conservatives and NDP.
Canadians understand the difference between protecting vulnerable seniors and sending public subsidies to retirees with incomes that many working families can only dream of earning.
They also understand that unnerving times require serious choices.
We need greater investments in industrial resilience, worker protection, defence, economic security and affordability.
All of that costs money.
We can continue borrowing more, and likely will. But we can also start fixing obvious spending inefficiencies that no longer serve the public interest.
OAS reform should be at the top of the list.
A smarter OAS would free billions to eliminate seniors’ poverty, reduce deficits, support younger Canadians and strengthen Canada’s ability to respond to mounting economic threats.
That sounds like a distinctly Canadian approach: Ensure those who need more get more, while those who are financially secure take a little less.
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If you’re concerned that hundreds of thousands of seniors remain poor because public dollars are still being directed to nearly two million retirees in six-figure-income households, write to the Prime Minister.
Fixing OAS in the coming budget is a necessary step toward putting Canada’s finances on firmer ground so we can meet this moment of growing threat from our American neighbours.
Because being the adult in the room is about more than keeping your cool. It’s about having the courage to make hard political choices before circumstances make them for you.
Dr. Paul Kershaw is a policy professor at UBC and founder of Generation Squeeze, Canada’s leading voice for generational fairness. You can follow Gen Squeeze on X, Facebook, Bluesky and Instagram, as well as subscribe to Paul’s Hard Truths podcast.
