Suburbanized homes are considered the standard in modern day Canada, but few realise the negative effects the suburbanization has had on Canadian identity. ‘Cookie-Cutter’ homes have many issues under the surface, as the outdated metropolitan area planning method increases negative environmental impacts and decreases the quality of life in the area, Canadians continue to buy into it. To understand the negative impacts on Canadian identity, one first has to understand why suburbia is outdated. Created around the beginning of the economic boom, suburban homes were the quick fix solution to the consumerist attitude. The 1920s saw a rise of soldiers returning home looking for a home, only for the inner-city communities to grow overpopulated and …show more content…
The popularity of suburbanization only grew after World War Two. Suburban homes were built on selling the people profiting off of the post-war economic boom on the ‘Nuclear Lifestyle’. These neighbourhoods also fed into the consumerist ideals of the post-war industrial growth through forcing other purchases upon residents such as a car due to the structure of the neighbourhood being unfriendly for pedestrians. The Suburban-Nuclear dream is only further advertised in today's media, but is realistically outdated and unattainable to the average person in Canada's economic crisis. In the 1950s the average price of a home was $12,000, with an average income of $22,000, but in 2023 the average price of a single-detached house was $650,000 with an average income of $80,000. Canadians clearly cannot afford the consumerist mindset of the postwar suburban citizen. The next problem with Suburbia is its sustainability. Suburban areas are designed in a rural-inspired format, with a population close to one of an urban area. This means that suburban areas take up a lot of space, giving up land that could be put towards agriculture or