Canada 1945-1982 Menu Task
By Aman Singh
What were the short-term effects of the baby boom? In what ways is the baby boom still affecting Canada and Canadians today?
The Baby Boom was a increase in the birth rate in Canada and other countries. The period of the baby boom is generally accepted to be from 1946 (around the end of World War 2) to around 1965. In the 20 years of the Baby Boom, a massive amount of babies were being born due to better economic conditions and a lower age at which people married each other. The median age for marriage in Canada was 23 in 1940, and went to 21.1 by the end of 1965. The highest point was a birthrate of 28.5, which means in between 28-29 babies being born for each 1000 citizens in Canada.
The short term effects of the baby boom was a economic boom. An massive increase in population meant there was more money circulating around and more goods had to purchased. Demand increased which meant we needed suppliers to increase production, which means hiring more workers and investing more, or to get new businesses, which also produces jobs and investments. Since there was an economic boom, the Baby Boom caused American investment to increase and to create more branch plants. The Baby Boom is one of the big 3 reasons why Americans started to invest in Canada, with the other 2 being an economic boom (partly caused by the Baby Boom) and our natural resources (gas,oil). Another short term impact was on Generation X or Baby Bust generation (Born from 1966-Late 1970s) was that they struggled with high unemployment and trouble making income. When they joined the workforce in the 1980s, a large amount of jobs were taken by the baby boomers, making it hard for Generation X people to find jobs. This led to them having no incentive to have many babies, leading to a decrease in birthrate.
The long term effects of the baby boom affecting Canadians today is going to be a shift of demand. Since there will be huge amounts of baby boomers retiring in the upcoming years, there will be an increase in demand for health care. Instead of having a focus on schools when the baby boomers were growing up, health industries in Canada will grow in order to fulfill the demand. There will be an increase in medical jobs like doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers and medical technicians. This also means that a lot of jobs owned by baby boomers will be open and will require new people to fill them.
The above is a cartoon which shows the current problem Canada will be facing. The hippo (baby boombers) will be trying to get through the hoop (medicare) but is too big. The cartoon is showing that the medicare system may not be able to handle the massive amount of baby boomers.