TorontoRealtyBlog
I’m proposing a Monday morning quiz, and I would appreciate it if everyone could participate.
The question is seemingly simple, but it cuts deeper if you let it sink in for a moment:
What was the most impactful course you took in high school, and why?
Think about it.
Was it in Grade 9 when you first started out? Or was it later down the line in Grade 12 or perhaps Grade 13 or “O.A.C.” for those of us who attended in the 80’s and 90’s?
Was it the teacher who made the course impactful?
Was it the material itself, or the way the course made you think?
Was it a course you enjoyed? Or was it something hard that forced you to apply yourself?
This is going to sound very silly to many of you, but one of the most impactful courses I took in high school was Grade 10 drama.
I won’t get into my trials and tribulations as a teenager, but suffice it to say, Grade 9 was hard. Then along came Grade 10, and it was during drama that I really found the space to express myself.
I had an amazing teacher: Mrs. Maplesden. She told us, “You can say whatever you want, use whatever words you want, swear to your heart’s content, so long its part of your art, and you remain respectful.”
She gave us the space to explore, and many of us thrived on that.
So much of what we learned in school was just memorization. Languages, for example. You’re just studying the translation of words for the test the next day. The same goes for much of geography, history, et al. So much of what we learned wasn’t actually applied.
But in drama, it was all creative. It was all new. It was all personal.
This is where I first learned by love of creative writing, as I would sit down and pen scripts for our “scenes” and “sketches” the next day.
This is where I learned to take risks, be vulnerable in front of other people, and try to be original in a world where originality was fleeting.
I took drama again in Grade 11 and while, for some reason, there was no Grade 12 drama offered, I took O.A.C. drama and used that as one of my “credits” for university applications.
Now, I said that drama was “one of” the most impactful courses I took in high school, and while I have way more fun reminiscing about drama, the course that probably had the largest impact on my life was Grade 11 economics.
Continuing the theme of the “space to explore,” I just felt at home with an X-axis and a Y-axis, moving curves up, down, left, and right.
While math and chemistry are more difficult and make you think deeper, they both essentially have a “right” and “wrong” to them.
With economics, there’s more of a connection between a hypothesis and a conclusion, and more room for analysis and reflection.
I ended up studying economics further in university as, sadly, drama just didn’t fit the bill.
And while I enjoyed math in high school, I definitely enjoyed English (especially O.A.C. “Writer’s Craft” which had a huge impact on my life), nothing prepared me for the future and the real world quite like economics.
My O.A.C economics teacher was a gentleman named Jim Georgiadis at Leaside High School.
He retired this year. And believe it or not, I was in the first class he taught in his first year of teaching in 1998.
Time flies when you’re having fun, right?
Perhaps I’m being nostalgic. Perhaps I’m being reflective. Either way, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section today; tell me what the most impactful course you took in high school was, and why.
On that note, why don’t we go through an economic update today here on TRB?
Thanks to our friend Jason Friesen at Outline Financial for providing us with today’s slides!
I typically run this blog feature quarterly, and a lot has changed over the last several months!
Let’s start with an updated look at the Bank of Canada interest rate:
With the latest BOC rate cut, we’re now seeing variable rate mortgages in the 3.60% – 3.75% range, and many fixed-rate mortgages are coming in under 4.00%.
One of the biggest surprises last month came via the jobs report.
The forecast for October was a loss of 2,500 jobs, but instead, the country gained 67,000 jobs.
The chart below shows how the gains in September and October have offset the losses in July and August, and then some:
Unemployment in the month of September came in at 7.1%, which was the highest it had been since September of 2021!
Last month, unemployment declined to 6.9%, although the chart below shows the trend has been steadily rising since the start of 2022:
While much is made of the unemployment rate overall, I rarely see the mainstream media take a deeper dive and look at unemployment by age groups.
With unemployment at 6.9% overall in October, here’s how it looked according to Youth, Core Age, and 55+:
Is now a bad time to surmise that youth unemployment is at 14.1% because there aren’t enough high-paying jobs that require you to take selfies at the gym after sleeping until noon?
Just kidding!
Sort of…
Perhaps also not all that shocking is that Ontario’s unemployment is higher than the country’s average:
It’s worth noting that the 7.6% unemployment in Ontario is actually down from 7.9% one month prior.
The trendlines for overall unemployment and Ontario unemployment are the same, so it’s not like the Province is way out in front.
As for inflation, we hit 2.4% in September, which was the highest it’s been since February saw a 2.6% figure posted. But that came down to 2.2% in October:
Keep in mind, we saw 1.7% inflation in each of April, May, and July, and the entire year has been within that “acceptable” range of 1-3%, as the chart shows.
As for GDP, recall that we saw three straight months of negative growth in April, May, and June, which was a major cause for concern. That oddly led to a 0.3% increase in July, followed by a 0.3% decrease in August:
Ask ten people what they think of the Canadian economy, and you’ll probably get ten different answers.
This article appeared at the end of last week:
“Economists Say Canada ‘Running On Fumes’ Despite Blockbuster GDP Beat”
Financial Post
November 28th, 2025
From the article:
Gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter came in at 2.6 per cent annualized compared with estimates for 0.5 per cent growth, but some economists say the details of the report paint a less-than-favourable picture of the Canadian economy.
The agency’s flash estimate for October suggests GDP growth shrank 0.3 per cent, reversing a monthly gain of 0.2 per cent in September.
Some economists think that means the economy could shrink in the fourth quarter, falling short of the Bank of Canada’s growth estimate of one per cent annualized.
Now, back to interest rates, just for a moment.
With the first seven scheduled interest rate announcements now in the books, we have one left, and it’s in less than two weeks.
Are we going to see another cut?
Unlikely…
Despite the markets pricing in a mere 10% chance of a cut, we’re still seeing articles like this one:
“Job Numbers Cry Out For More Bank Of Canada Rate Cuts, Economists Say”
Financial Post
November 28th, 2025
From the article:
The number of people receiving pay and benefits from their employer fell by 58,000 in September, with the losses spread across 11 of the 20 sectors and more than eliminating a gain of about 17,000 in August, according to the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH).
That contrasts with the 67,000 positions gained in October, according to the agency’s Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is based on a poll of households’ employment status, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.9 per cent from 7.1 per cent. The gain in October followed an increase of 41,000 in September.
“Call it a tale of two employment reports,” David Rosenberg, president of Rosenberg Research & Associates Inc., said in a note. “If you pay attention to the notoriously volatile Canadian household survey, you could be forgiven for thinking that the local economy is in the midst of a surprising boom.”
While many economists are calling for more interest rate cuts, most of the banks are predicting rate holds through 2026.
Here are the most recent projections:
CIBC, NBC, RBC, and TD are taking the easy bet and predicting that rates will remain at 2.25% through the end of 2026.
BMO is predicting a 25 basis-point cut in 2026.
Amazingly, Scotiabank is predicting a 50 basis-point increase in 2026!
Suffice it to say, I don’t think we’re going to see another cut on December 10th, although selfishly, I’d welcome it.
As for bond yields, which determine fixed-rate mortgages, they’ve been on the rise over the last several weeks:
A lot of my clients have taken fixed-rate mortgages in 2025, and many variable-rate holders are starting to lock in.
Personally, I’m still variable on all my mortgages.
There’s no right or wrong here; there’s merely preference.
But if anybody does want to share whether they’ve gone variable or fixed, I’d love to hear it.
After you detail your most influential high school course, that is…
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