The question Canadians are asking today, after Finance Minister François Philippe Champagne tabled his first budget under Prime Minister Mark Carney, is simple. How, exactly, will any of this make my life more affordable?

The government calls this a generational budget, an investment in the country’s future. But for most Canadians, the question is whether they can afford the present. The promise of long-term transformation means little when the bills keep piling up.

Across the country, people are sitting at kitchen tables running the same numbers again and again. Mortgage. Rent. Groceries. Utilities. What can wait another month? What cannot? These are not abstract calculations. They are quiet acts of endurance, repeated in millions of homes every night.

According to an Ipsos survey fo

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