All the talk of the rise of whether or not Doug Ford is a populist or not misses an important point, the conditions for the rise of populism based on the feeling of economic uncertainty remain very high. Expectations for standard of living is a good indicator.

A recent Nanos poll shows that 58% of Canadians think that future generations will have a lower standard of living than current Canadians. The emotional impact of feeling like the next generations (our sons and daughters) will have less economic certainly and stability is potentially toxic for institutional stability.

The good news is that the trend has stopped moving in the negative direction and potentially is abating some. In 2012, Nanos found that 26% held an optimistic view compared with 37% who held a pessimistic view of the future. Since 2012, the pessimistic view has clearly won out.

Source: Nanos Research self-commissioned online survey conducted between April 7 and 10th, 2018 with 1000 Canadians. For Nanos analysis, methodology and additional demographic breaks see the Nanos report.