Endurance Economy Insights Hub
Why You Should Check Out the Ipsos Endurance Economy Hub
Most economic commentary is designed to help leaders understand what is happening right now. The Endurance Economy Hub is designed to help leaders understand what comes next.
The Hub is built around a simple observation: many of the forces shaping Canada today: affordability pressures, housing challenges, productivity concerns, demographic change, geopolitical uncertainty, and declining confidence are increasingly being experienced as structural rather than temporary. Consumers, employees, voters, and institutions are not simply waiting for conditions to improve. They are adapting to a new reality.
Organizations that continue to plan for a traditional recovery may miss the more important story of how prolonged constraint is permanently reshaping expectations, behaviours, and decision-making. The Endurance Economy Hub explores those shifts and what they mean for business leaders, policymakers, and brands.
The Hub goes beyond economic indicators to examine how enduring pressures are influencing consumer spending, customer experience, brand loyalty, workforce attitudes, public sentiment, political behaviour, and trust in institutions. It connects developments that are often discussed separately into a single framework that helps explain how Canada is changing.
For leaders, the value is not simply access to data. It is access to interpretation. A stable economy does not necessarily mean consumers feel secure. Continued spending does not necessarily mean households are financially comfortable. Strong employment does not always translate into optimism about the future. The Hub helps uncover these gaps between headline indicators and lived reality.
Whether you lead a business, manage a brand, shape public policy, oversee customer experience, or develop long-term strategy, understanding these adaptations can provide an important advantage. Organizations that recognize changes in public attitudes and behaviour early are often better positioned to anticipate risks, identify opportunities, strengthen customer relationships, and make better strategic decisions.
The Endurance Economy Hub is for leaders who want to understand not only the conditions shaping Canada today, but the deeper forces that will influence growth, competitiveness, customer expectations, and public confidence in the years ahead.
POVs
 | The Endurance Economy at Mid-Year 2026 Canada is not experiencing a normal economic recovery. Ipsos argues that affordability pressures, weaker confidence, and structural challenges (housing, productivity, demographics, healthcare) are driving a prolonged period of adaptation rather than a return to pre-pandemic norms. Organizations must plan for endurance, not recovery. |
 | Canada: A Stressed Nation Needs to Take the Summer Off Ipsos compares Canadian sentiment in 2026 to the early months of COVID and finds Canadians are often more emotionally exhausted today. The paper argues that chronic structural pressures have created a sense of ongoing strain, making confidence and optimism as important as economic recovery. |
 | From Canada Goose to Golden Swan: Why Canada is Ready to Build This POV argues that Canada's affordability challenges are structural and require transformative national investment. Ipsos suggests Canadians increasingly support large-scale infrastructure, energy, housing, and productivity projects that could create a "Golden Swan" event capable of breaking the endurance cycle. |
 | Navigating the Endurance Economy: A BC Perspective on Brand Resilience Using British Columbia as an early indicator of national trends, Ipsos explores how consumers adapt to sustained affordability pressure. Brands that succeed will balance realism with optimism, strengthen community connections, and deliver meaningful value beyond price. |
 | Customer Experience in an Endurance Economy The traditional CX model built on delight and differentiation is evolving. Consumers first want affordability, predictability, fairness, and trust before they consider premium experiences. Organizations must redesign customer journeys around certainty and value. |
 | The Canada Strong Fund has a timing problem This commentary examines whether major federal investment programs align with current household realities. The paper explores how affordability pressures may affect public receptiveness and whether long-term initiatives match the urgency Canadians feel today. |
 | Ipsos argues that winning brands will not necessarily be the lowest-cost providers. Instead, success will come from helping consumers feel confident, capable, and adaptable as they navigate prolonged economic pressure. |
 | Canadian Telcos: Navigating Headwinds in the Endurance Economy Canadian telecom companies face customers who are demanding fairness, transparency, and predictable value. The paper examines how telcos can respond to heightened scrutiny as consumers become more price-sensitive and less tolerant of unexpected costs. |
 | The Endurance Economy is creating a paradox: Canadians can unite around shared affordability concerns while simultaneously becoming more divided across regions, generations, and socioeconomic groups. The paper explores these emerging tensions. |
 | Don’t Mistake Stability for Endurance Many households appear stable on the surface, but that stability often masks ongoing adaptation and sacrifice. Ipsos warns organizations not to interpret resilient spending or employment figures as evidence that affordability challenges have been solved. |
 | This analysis compares Mark Carney's Endurance-focused agenda with Trudeau-era affordability relief messaging. Ipsos explores how differing political narratives resonate with Canadians facing long-term economic pressures. |
 | Mark Carney Mirrors Canadian Opinion at Davos This POV assesses whether Mark Carney's international economic vision aligns with Canadian public sentiment. Ipsos uses polling data to evaluate support for Canada's evolving role in global affairs and economic policy. |
 | A Primer on The Endurance Economy This foundational paper introduces the Endurance Economy framework. It explains how prolonged affordability challenges are reshaping consumer expectations, business strategy, public policy, and social behaviour across Canada. |
Podcasts, Blogs & Events
New  | Mike Colledge: What would Laurier tell Canadians today? Economic uncertainty is reshaping Canadians' confidence in the future. Mike Colledge explores how Canada can adapt to slower growth while strengthening trust, fairness and social cohesion. |
![[WEBINAR] What You Need to Know About Canada’s Endurance Economy](https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ee-thumbnail-what-you-need-know.jpg) | [WEBINAR] What You Need to Know About Canada’s Endurance Economy Revisit our on-demand webinar presenting the framework and its implications, followed by a roundtable with our Customer Experience, Marketing Strategy, and Public Affairs experts on what this means for customers, brands, and public policy. |
![[WEBINAR] Is Canada Ready to Build? Navigating Public Sentiment](https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ee-thumbnail-canada-ready-build.jpg) | [WEBINAR] Is Canada Ready to Build? Navigating Public Sentiment Revisit our on-demand executive briefing on where the energy sector is now in the public’s mind, and what the data how is needed successfully execute major capital projects in the current socio-political landscape. |
 | The Magical Majority Moment - What’s Next? with Darrell Bricker Listen in to hear more about the Liberal majority, floor crossers, what Canadians want from their government, how Mark Carney is doing at dealing with Trump, our country’s position as an energy supplier, simmering separatists in Alberta, demographics divisions in Canada, how polling is conducted, and more! |
 | Build vs. Endure: The Credibility Problem of a Big, Optimistic Word How "Build" became the most politically successful single word in Canadian public life, and the saturation point that risks its failure. |
 | The endurance economy cannot ignore the engine that powers Canada’s federal government's policy response: the public service. In this guest column for Sage, Gregory Jack and Mike Colledge explore how the endurance economy presents an opportunity for the public service to serve as an antidote to the endurance challenges Canadians will continue to face. But first it must re-wire itself to respond to a chronic, low-growth and high-strain Canadian economy. As Canadians increasingly think short-term, the public service must think long term and be honest with Canadians about what it can and cannot do, in order to make itself relevant again. |
 | Mike Colledge: Welcome to 2026 - the year of endurance It is shaping up to be a year Canadians expect to muddle through. |
 | Mike Colledge: The new front lines of the Canadian economy Endurance in the face of radical uncertainty is the new normal in Canadian life. |
Experts
Gregory Jack leads Ipsos’ public affairs practice in Ottawa and in the Canadian National Capital Region (NCR). Contact him about the endurance economy and Canada-U.S. relations.
Mike Colledge brings an evidence-led perspective to help clients navigate the Endurance Economy, where enduring pressures are transforming citizens’ and consumers’ attitudes, behaviours, and institutional expectations.
Mario Caceres Despite his job title, Client Officer, and what his two children think, Mario is not a security officer. He partners with financial services clients to translate market signals into insights and stories they can act on. Born in Honduras and shaped by economies in Japan, Denmark, and the US before landing in Canada, he brings a lived understanding of what it means to adapt when the rules change.
Cameron McFadyen Based in Vancouver, Cameron leads business development for Ipsos across Western Canada and in key national sectors. With over fifteen years of national brand leadership experience, he has held roles spanning marketing and GTM, retail account management, and C-Suite secondments. Drawing on his brand and agency experience, Cameron works with our research teams to design tailored programs that give clients the insights they need to drive growth.
Diane Ridgway-Cross is the Canada Country Lead for Ipsos Strategy3, Ipsos’ in-house strategic growth consultancy, helping organizations navigate a more complex business landscape where disruption is relentless, customer expectations are ever increasing, and competitive advantage is never guaranteed. Drawing on Strategy3’s integrated work across corporate, brand, and customer strategy—and anchored in deep trends and foresight expertise—she partners with organizations to turn macro change into clear strategic choices and future-ready growth agendas.
Donna Hui is a senior leader at Ipsos specializing in customer experience, growth strategy, and organizational change. She helps organizations align experience, operations, and go-to-market strategies into a continuous growth flywheel that drives measurable outcomes. She brings over 20 years of experience across healthcare, technology, and CPG.
![[WEBINAR] KEYS: The Frontiers of Brand Trust](/sites/default/files/styles/list_item_image/public/ct/event/2026-07/thumbnail-keys-0709_.png?itok=9QB6t3fe)
![[WEBINAR] What You Need to Know About Canada’s Endurance Economy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_item_image/public/ct/event/2026-05/thumbnail-ca-ee.png?itok=GFf59Sr8)