Purely as a matter of discussion -- would draconian government interventions into the housing market work to restore some semblance of affordability?

Borrowing from the worst possible example that I can think of -- the Mainland Chinese housing market in China has gone to shxt -- certain places are seeing tremendous upward pressure, while other cities have markets tanking. In its typical control freak fashion, the Communist Party has implemented "reference pricing" as well as "minimal per square meter" pricing, depending on what is happening at specific cities. In essence, in places with red hot markets, the government comes up with a "reference price" for each area (in the city), and the reference pricing model disallows transactions that differ from the reference price by more than 15%. Banks are also only allowed to issue mortgages based on the reference price, not the actual transaction price.

In places where the market is tanking, the minimal per square meter price disallows transactions where the per square meter price is lower than the reference value. The obvious result is artificially inflated RE prices, and RE transactions pretty much drops to nothing. But people wouldn't be saddle with negative equity.

For the artificially suppressed RE pricing to work, draconian measures would have to be implemented to limit RE ownership -- no foreign ownership, maybe at most 1 investment property per person/household at most, stiff penalties for breaking rules, etc.

As a rule, I generally believe in the free market for most things. But with housing affordability being such an important issue, I wonder if government intervention might actually be needed somehow, and I wonder what sort of consequences -- esp the bad ones -- might result.

That’s kind of my point. Housing shouldn’t have been a commodity or way to make money through ballooning valuations in the first place.

But once it’s happened and been happening for over 20 years and everyone’s adjusted and planned their entire lives around it… do you fuck every single person in the ass who bought something?

The issue with RE is that politicians have no clue on how to handle it. They only point at a scapegoat and claim they have a solution for it to get your votes.

The main issue with Canadian RE is why are foreigners able to buy Canadian RE at such a high valuation? What are the reasons that Canadians with a Canadian education (post secondary included, especially on how many international students we get) cannot buy RE yet a foreigner can?

The problem you have described is because our RE market operates on a free market principle, with the added bonus that our idiot politicians are too dumb / corrupt to shape it for the benefit of our fellow Canadians.

Foreign investment is not inherently bad. But given how our RE market has become, our first priority should be to ensure that local Canadians can afford to purchase a primary residence that is actually respectable in size, instead of getting stuffed into a 700 sq ft box in the air with a family of 4.

This is a very strange election, one that I'm quite surprised Trudeau has been looking so poorly in.

The lack of housing unaffordability is not directly Trudeau's fault, however the electorate will judge you based on the current situation, even if that situation had been caused or contributed to by prior administrations. Biden with the Afghanistan pull out is a perfect example of this.

Affordability is at its worst we've ever seen in Canada, for Trudeau, he has to wear that unfortunately.

The other obvious factor here is COVID -- Vaccination mandates, and vaccine passports.

The "right" in Canada has weaponized this subject to their benefit, using the Conservative party's "stance" as a way to skew the public in their favor, I find that to be a pretty disingenuous and cynical standing.

Ontario could be considered the bastion of Conservative politics (with Alberta to a degree), their own premier Doug Ford imposed some of the strictest and longest running COVID measures in the country. Now because the Liberal party announces mandates on vaccines and a vaccine passport, suddenly the Conservatives are COVID deniers, and all about freedom of choice?

It's all bullshit at the end of the day, and the voting public is falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

So reconciliation has seemingly fallen by the wayside

And the opioid crisis which continues to kill way more people than covid is a non-factor.

Uhg..

Does anyone notice we're really turning into more of an American style of propaganda politics then we were 10 years ago? Or is it just me? The internet has seemed to have accelerated this change exponentially.

I'm finding it really troubling. I always found Canadians to be better informed politically than our southern counterparts, but within the last 10 years I've seen that change drastically.

I can’t remember who said it in the covid thread but they put it well “we are fighting world war stupid and it’s a losing battle”
Everyone’s looking for scapegoats and politicians are using that far beyond any platforms or ideologies to get elected.
The opposition is much more concerned with the ruling party failing than they are collaborating for the good of the people. Left, right and everywhere in between.
Much of that could have been solved with proportional representation like the libs platformed on, however, as usual, anything that can upset the status quo is not going to happen.

I don't believe any of the platforms will make any direct impact to lower property prices in the real estate market. It has all been empty promises so far


Trudeau pledges funding for affordable housing, tax breaks for developers -Sept 2015

......

Trudeau asks Governor General to declare election takesies backsies

https://thebeaverton.com/2021/08/tru...sies-backsies/

I got a good laugh out of this.

It's the Beaverton aka the The Onion Canadian version is a satire site.

delete.

We are becoming America.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tru...ario-1.6156324

Just people coming to their senses.

Gotta give credit where it's due. This is a great move IMO.

Conservative candidate banishes campaign volunteers who were at Trudeau rally

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/con...ally-1.6156959

Ahh yes very reasonable folk.
Good on o’toole though. This has no place in Canadian politics, or in Canada period.

Lol

Right thing to do by O'Toole, don't let that stick to you. Man, he is coming out shining at every critical moment ... I'm somewhat surprised. The hillbilly right wing boogey man image is not sticking ... he is actually gaining popularity and coming across as a moderate conservative.

Manic! must be squirming and losing sleep as the election campaign progresses along.

Even communist westopher is coming around to it. I’m not voting for cons for reasons I outlined previously, however, I know they are gonna win, so it would be sweet if they came in and did a reasonable job.

I just read an article on The Globe and Mail that a Tesla driver is actually worse for the environment because they are generally richer and hence leave more carbon footprint. I'm like :rukidding: So, if I'm that same person, making the same carbon footprint, and, instead of driving a Tesla, I drive a big fucking V12, and somehow that's better for the environment because I'd need to cut expenses elsewhere? :fuckthatshit:

And this is G&M... arguably the most, or at least one of the most respected newspapers in Canada.

The problem is us. Medias now just publish shits. And I do mean quite literal... shitty articles that serve no other purpose than pleasing their readers and advertisers. In the case of G&M, their big auto ads money and their oldschooler readers.

And when the public is being bombarded with extreme articles, what do you expect them to do? They will either agree to it... and becoming the extreme version of the side they agree to, or they don't agree to it, and become the exact opposite side in the same extreme manner.

To make the matter worse, the general public has given the ok to a sickening cancel cuture that you either agree with me, or I'm going to trash you into the oblivion. And that kind of behaviour is actually "ok" when it's "for a cause". It's no longer ok to agree to disagree. And personal opinion no longer matter.

So, no... we are not becoming America. We just have a bit of a delay adapting everything comparing to our southern neighbor.

Con Candidate for Nanaimo.

She is on the board for Toronto hydro

https://www.torontohydro.com/about-u.../tamara-kronis



From her website: https://tamarakronis.ca/

Who sends there kid across country to Nanaimo to go to high school?


According to 338 Canada it's a toss up between the cons greens and the NDP but as more people find out she is from Toronto I think that will change.

https://338canada.com/59018e.htm

Shawanigan lake or Brentwood probably, if the kids either a genius or a nightmare.

Surprise surprise ... according to the polls, there is a new front runner !

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/fede...data-1.5565125

I’m sure Connor McDavid loves having his photo used on that insanely poorly conceived and thought out poster.

Do they know who made it? It’s a pretty massive tell (can’t even call it a dog whistle it’s so blatant) to use the OK thing too… wow…