The Missing Middle with Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux
Welcome to the Missing Middle, a podcast about why the middle class in Canada is disappearing. We hope to help you understand why life is becoming unaffordable for so many in this country, and what can be done to reverse course.
Episodes
138 episodes
How Housing Prices Shape Families
This episode of the Missing Middle podcast explores a new University of Toronto study that highlights housing affordability as a key factor in declining fertil...
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Season 1
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Episode 137
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25:34
Are Boomers Bankrupting the Future?
The conversation highlights the pressing issue of intergenerational tensions in Canada, particularly focusing on the financial burdens faced by younger Canadians. Sabrina discusses the potential consequences of failing to address these issues, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 136
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15:36
Canada Is Finally Regulating Stablecoins – Here’s Why It Matters
Canada is moving toward regulating dollar-backed stablecoins, and in this episode, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt break down what that means. They explain how stablecoins work, why Canada has been behind other G7 countries, and the potential...
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Season 1
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Episode 135
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14:05
Why Rent Control Might Be Hurting the People It’s Meant to Help
Host Cara Stern is back from parental leave, and she and Mike are jumping right into one of the most debated topics in housing policy — rent control. Inspired by Zohran Mamdani's campaign rent freeze proposal, they dig into how these rules shap...
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Season 1
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Episode 134
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19:29
How Canada Fell Behind the World on Housing Affordability
This week on The Missing Middle Podcast, Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux bust some myths and take a hard look at Canada’s place in the global housing landscape. Drawing on new OECD data, they reveal why Canada’s housing affordability...
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Season 1
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Episode 133
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19:44
Do You Have a CRA Horror Story?
The Canada Revenue Agency is facing a public crisis: long delays, wrong assessments, and frustrated taxpayers. Hosts Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt unpack the CRA’s 100-day “fix,” why it’s only a Band-Aid solution, and the deeper structural ...
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Season 1
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Episode 132
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15:47
The Rental Paradox: Why Lower Prices Aren't Enough
Rents are finally dropping in many Canadian cities, yet finding an affordable, decent apartment still feels impossible. What’s going on with the rental market?In this episode, Sabrina Maddeaux sits down with Max Steinman, CEO of RentSync...
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Season 1
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Episode 131
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23:47
Nightmare on Craven Road: When Local Politics Derail Citywide Housing Goals
What happens when one city councillor gets Toronto council to vote in favour of “studying” garden suites on a single block, potentially undoing years of zoning reform? In this episode of The Missing Middle, Mike Moffatt and Meredith Martin dig ...
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Season 1
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Episode 130
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15:41
Eastbound and Outpriced: The Great GTA Family Migration
Ontario’s family housing crisis is spreading fast, and it’s not just a GTA problem anymore. In this episode of The Missing Middle podcast, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt delve into a new report that reveals how the shortage of famil...
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Season 1
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Episode 129
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21:39
From Kraft Dinner to Condos: The Great Shrinkage
In this episode of The Missing Middle, Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux dig into the rise of shrinkflation, from grocery store products like cereal and Kraft Dinner to Canada’s shrinking condos, and reveal how companies, developers, a...
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Season 1
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Episode 129
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26:23
Ontario’s Housing Sales Collapse: It’s Not Just Toronto Condos
Ontario’s housing market is in crisis, and it’s not just condos in downtown Toronto. In this episode of The Missing Middle Podcast, Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux break down a bleak new report on housing starts and sales across 34 m...
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Season 1
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Episode 128
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13:13
Who Really Wins with Return-to-Office Mandates?
In this episode of The Missing Middle, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt break down Ontario’s new return-to-office mandate and the big banks’ similar policies, asking what they really mean for younger workers and families already facing high ho...
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Season 1
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Episode 127
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17:28
Condo Crashes, Shrinkflation, & The Death of Homeownership?
In this episode of The Missing Middle, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt dig into Canada’s condo market crash, the rise of “housing shrinkflation,” and what it all means for young Canadians chasing the dream of homeownership. They unpa...
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Season 1
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Episode 126
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16:33
The Secret Life of Think Tanks: Funding, Influence & Careers
Ever wonder what people at think tanks actually do all day? In this episode of The Missing Middle, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt pull back the curtain on the mysterious world of think tanks. From how they’re structured and funded, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 125
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20:43
Infill Housing Battles: What 15 Years of Data Reveal
Why do some infill housing projects spark outrage while others fly under the radar? In this episode of The Missing Middle, host Sabrina Matto sits down with former London City Councillor and researcher Jesse Helmer to unpack 15 years o...
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Season 1
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Episode 124
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20:07
The High Cost of Losing Your Creative Class
Canadian cities are facing a creative crisis. Rising housing costs are driving artists, musicians, designers, and other innovators out — and it’s not just culture that’s at risk. In this episode, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt break down how...
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Season 1
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Episode 123
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17:00
Can Tax Reform Help Young Canadians Afford Homes?
Are young Canadians being taxed like millionaires while living like broke students? Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt dive into the jaw-dropping disconnect between salaries, taxes, and the insane cost of housing. From bold tax reform ideas to c...
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Season 1
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Episode 122
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30:55
MURBs & The Housing Plot Twist No One Saw Coming
What do cheesy Jean-Claude Van Damme movies and Canada’s rental housing crisis have in common? Apparently, more than you’d think! In this episode of The Missing Middle, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt hop in their imaginary time machine to ex...
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Season 1
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Episode 121
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15:47
REITs, Rent & Rage: Canada’s Housing Tug-of-War
In this episode of The Missing Middle, Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux unpack the controversy around REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and their role in Canada’s housing crisis. Are REITs really blocking affordable housing, or ...
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Season 1
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Episode 120
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17:29
Young Workers and the Public Service Purge
In this episode of The Missing Middle, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt break down the massive wave of federal public service job cuts and how they’re slamming young Canadians the hardest. From thousands of lost student and contract j...
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Season 1
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Episode 119
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22:42
The $6.6 Billion Housing Disaster Politicians Won’t Talk About
Toronto’s housing market is in free fall — new condo sales have plunged 97% since 2021, costing governments $6.6 billion in lost tax revenue every year. In this episode, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt break down shocking new data on record-l...
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Season 1
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Episode 118
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17:45
Broken Zoning: Why We Can’t Fix the Housing Crisis Without a Map
In this episode of The Missing Middle, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt are joined by urban planner Alex Beheshti for a deep dive into one of the most overlooked barriers to solving Canada’s housing crisis: zoning data. Alex makes the...
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Season 1
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Episode 117
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16:31
How Cities Keep Screwing up Multiplex Housing
Why aren’t we seeing more multiplexes in Canadian cities—even after zoning reforms? In this episode of The Missing Middle, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt dig into the surprising roadblocks holding back infill housing. From bizarre b...
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Season 1
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Episode 116
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16:29
Canada’s GST Rebate is Based On 1991 Home Prices-WTF!?!
In this episode, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt tackle how GST rebates are affecting new homebuyers, tracing the history of these incentives and how inflation has quietly eroded their value. With fresh rebate structures now on the table—espe...
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Season 1
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Episode 115
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18:21
Politicians vs. Millennials: The Battle for Housing Affordability
In this episode of the Missing Middle podcast Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt discuss the lack of clear housing goals from political parties, including the Liberals' national housing strategy's focus on low-income earners and the NDP's ineffe...
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Season 1
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Episode 114
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31:33