the increases in the cost of living in the years leading up to the pandemic were disastrous for artists in this country, and may be part of the reason why the canadian art scene caved in almost as soon as the liberals were elected in 2015. past liberal governments have actually been relatively good about funding the arts, but this is the first fully neo-liberal incarnation of the party, and all they care about is maximizing returns for investors and rentiers - including landlords.

but, if we go back to the 00s, it was actually relatively easy to live in a nice spot in downtown ottawa and only work 20 hours a week - so long as you didn't waste money on things like tv, phones, cars, etc. in fact, i even smoked at the time, and was able to make regular payments on my loan....working 20 hours a week in a call centre.

i know that the world around me was racking up debt and climbing over each other to get ahead, but you could live a low-key socialist existence back then, if you truly wanted to.

that's changed.