(I posted this to Canadapolitics as well, but I wasn’t sure if I’d get responses so trying here as well!)
Despite the research I’ve done and the debates I’ve watched, the fact remains I agree with some of each candidates platform and disagree with other parts. I’m really struggling with how to vote both provincial (Ontario) and federal.
I thought it’d be fun to get other people’s opinion on the issues that matter most to you, why you think your candidate is trustworthy, and see if any of it helps solidify my vote! 🇨🇦
A big part of this is that it isn’t just a “housing problem”. Its a problem with the way we build, tax, zone, and maintain cities. Decades of unchecked suburban growth coupled with limiting density on top of our bulldozed cities has not been a good recipe. Solving the housing crisis isn’t as easy as paving over more farmland for suburban subdivisions, it means rethinking the entire way we structure our cities and how we get around them. Even current prices would technically be more affordable if we had more robust transit allowing more people to live care free without major sacrafices to their local mobility. On top of this, all 3 levels of governments have to get along to properly implement these changes, which adds delays and red tapes as a municipality argues against a province trying to follow federal direction and funding.
There is also the real issue that many homeowners are not willing to accept a 50% drop in home value, even when they say they want affordable housing. This might be able to be mitigated a bit if overpriced mortgages can be renegotiated for a lower value.
It’s actually more an issue with the financial system we created rather than the physical system. If homes are supposed to be an investment, by definition they need to increase in price faster than inflation. If something increases faster than inflation, it will always eventually become unaffordable.
You’re right about them not being willing to accept a 50% cut, but there is no possible way to preserve existing home values AND reach affordable housing, they’re incompatible with each other. This is why political parties are not actually trying to make homes affordable though, they have chosen to side with existing home owners because they’re a larger and more powerful voting group.
The banks aren’t going to write off 50% of the mortgages they hold either… that level of default would literally bankrupt every single one of them.