By Nnaemeka Udoka | Economics, Strategy & Politics | December 11, 2025
Canada has been here before.
Canada fixed a massive postwar housing crisis while doubling GDP. Today we build houses but neglect manufacturing, energy, and jobs. Time to learn from 1946.
In 1946, as soldiers returned from the Second World War, the country faced an unprecedented housing shortage. About 1 million veterans and war brides returned to Canada and needed homes, and the population was swelling—from 12.3 million in 1945 to 14 million by 1951. Canada responded with urgency and vision. Housing starts surged from 100,000 in 1946 to more than 200,000 by the mid-1950s, but it wasn’t just about building homes—it was about rebuilding a nation.
The federal government of the day didn’t focus narrowly on one sector. It launched a coordinated effort that expanded housing, created jobs, invested in public infrastructure, and built the foundations of a modern economy. By 1960, Canada’s GDP had doubled. The country emerged not only housed, but stronger, more productive, and more prosperous.
Today’s Canada faces a different crisis—but the same lesson applies.
We are again at a crossroads, and our leaders seem to have forgotten that housing alone doesn’t make an economy. The federal government has placed almost single-minded or tunnel vision emphasis on housing, pouring policy energy and political capital into construction targets. Yes, housing starts in 2024 reached 245,120 units—slightly up from 240,267 in 2023—but the question is: to what end?
Housing alone does not multiply economic capacity. Once the builder packs up, the painter leaves, and the mortgage is signed, what remains? A debt to the bank, not a new engine of growth. A country cannot mortgage its way to prosperity.
The deeper issue is that Canada’s real wealth-producing sectors—manufacturing, energy, technology, and resource development—are being neglected. These are the industries that create durable, high-value jobs and long-term multiplier effects. These are the sectors that build economic independence.
Take manufacturing. Several auto plants in Ontario have shut down in recent years. Why couldn’t we take over those facilities and build our own Canadian-made vehicles, especially in the growing electric market? Canadians would buy them. They would keep jobs and capital circulating within our borders and free us from the recurring threat of foreign manufacturers pulling out or relocating to the U.S.
The same logic applies to our natural resources. Canada sits atop vast reserves of oil, gas, critical minerals, and the untapped potential of the Ring of Fire. Rather than over-fixating on housing starts, why not unleash these sectors—responsibly and strategically—to drive real, sustainable growth?
Then there’s immigration. Canada’s postwar boom was manageable because the population surge was temporary and tied to a national rebuilding effort. Imagine if, in the late 1940s, one million veterans had returned home every year. The system would have collapsed. Yet today, Canada brings in close to half a million permanent residents annually—without a proportional increase in jobs, housing affordability, or infrastructure.
Even now, in Edmonton and Calgary, housing inventory is rising while buyers hesitate. Prices remain high, but demand is softening. Why? Because people can’t afford to buy without stable, well-paying jobs. You can’t fix a weak economy by simply building more houses for people who can’t buy them.
Canada needs to look beyond the hammer and the shovel. We must build factories, not just foundations; industries, not just interest payments. The postwar generation built a country that worked. We can do it again—but only if we stop mistaking construction for growth and start investing in the real economy.
By Seun Sylvester Opaleye | July 13, 2026
By Seun Sylvester Opaleye | July 8, 2026
By Seun Sylvester Opaleye | July 4, 2026
Apt!
Economically speaking, “Real GDP” growth comes from expanding a country’s productive capacity—not from recycling money into higher mortgages. For real GDP to rise, a country must produce more, export more, or become more efficient. Housing, while important, does very little of that. A home under construction temporarily appears in GDP as investment, but once the keys are handed over and the contractors leave, the economic contribution stops. What remains is not new productivity—it is a liability in the form of mortgage debt.
We are building homes without simultaneously expanding the economic base that allows people afford them.
Housing is necessary, but it is not an economic strategy.
A country grows when it adds productive assets, not just residential assets.
Great piece.
Couldn’t have said it any better! Great piece!
The above recommendations are valid and necessary for real growth. Every sector of the economy must be consciously invested in.
Great insight.
The premise that more focus is on housing is fact and true. That other sectors may not get that much funding because the focus is on housing at this time is simple economics. The needs of man are numerous and in many instances insatiable, the means to satisfy those needs are most often scarce and limited. There are numbers that show in Canada today that housing, Healthcare and a great deal of industrialization is needed to boost our economy. There is also a huge shortfall in labor supply forecast. As all needs of Canada cannot be met based on the aforementioned premise, focusing on housing at this time is one sure way to systematically overcoming the wider challenge. Food, clothing and shelter are basic needs of any population. Shelter is getting a fair share of attention at this time. Thank you for sharing this write-up. PMI