The debt can't be mostly due to people buying new cars. If the average car in Canada costs about $32K, this would mean that almost everyone bought a new car. ...Or at least every second person. That's way too many new cars.
There are a lot of arguments on the article back and forth that people aren't getting paid enough, that cost of living is too high, taxes are too high/low, banks are corrupt, that it's a massive housing bubble. Seems nobody wants to say that 163.7% consumer debt ratio is due to pure stupidity, materialism, gluttony, envy, greed, (insert other deadly sins here). Everyone on the MMM is proof that life doesn't have to be that way. The majority here have an annual debt ratio of -50%. We're 240% more badass than the average Canadian!
(It really is idiocy, BTW. There can be no other plausible explanation.)