The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought the fissures in Canada’s class divide to the fore. Since the spring of 2020, several splits — always present — have become more obvious. One class put its lives on the line to serve others (in some cases quite literally) while another class was able to distance itself from the worst of the virus. Since then, the economy dimmed and an affordability crisis descended, leaving millions of Canadians worried and struggling to afford the basics. With inflation raging, many now worry about making rent or paying their mortgage. The moment hasn’t been so tough on wealthy folks. Because class divides are power divides — and quality of life divides.

As the miseries of working people stack up further and further, Canadian media tends to treat their procession of problems as if they were bumps on an otherwise frictionless plane. The Canadian mainstream partakes of the notion, embedded, too, in the American experience, that the country is classless. Not classless in the Marxist sense, of course. Classless in the sense of a blunt equality that ensures everyone is just a few years of hustle away from wealth. That’s a lie, of course. But even persistent class divides are explained away or ignored. The United Kingdom has classes — they have lords and ladies! In Canada, everyone is just a Canadian. That’s how the class obfuscation goes.