The Weight We Carry: Debt, Wealth and Risk in Canadian Households 

For years, Canada has been described as a stable economy. Strong banks. Disciplined policy. Rising household wealth. But underneath that stability, something else has been doing much of the heavy lifting — households. 

Canadian households now carry some of the highest debt burdens in the advanced world, with mortgage debt and housing wealth increasingly shaping not just personal finances, but the broader trajectory of the economy itself. What happens when growth becomes deeply tied to household balance sheets? And what does that mean for productivity, business investment, inequality, and long-term economic resilience? 

In this episode, Marwa Abdou sits down with Stephen Poloz, Special Advisor at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, 9th Governor of the Bank of Canada, and author of The Next Age of Uncertainty. Together, they unpack the deeper structural forces behind Canada’s household debt story, from post-financial crisis monetary policy and housing markets to productivity stagnation and the changing nature of financial stability itself. 

This episode also explores why household debt is no longer just a question of financial risk but is increasingly a question about growth itself. Because when economies rely heavily on household leverage to sustain momentum, stability can begin to depend on households continually absorbing more pressure. And eventually, the question is not just whether the system can withstand shocks… but what the system stops being able to build.