And They Claimed They Weren't Going to Do It

About that:

Adam Vaughan was quick to call it hogwash.

Scheer was even pressed by the media whether he would apologize for the tweet, and stop flinging the accusation around, as if Adam Vaughan were suddenly the bearer of an undeniable truth.

But search out the tweet yourself, look at the Liberal document attached, and see if it rings true to you.

The attachment has a paragraph on “Campaign Platform 2019,” that reads: “Another idea that emerged from housing town halls is a sliding Capital Gains Tax on principle (sic) residences. A 50% tax after one year of ownership, 25% after two years, 15% after three years, 10% after four years, 5% after five.”

 

This Adam Vaughan:

Liberal apparatchiks must be going squirrely after loquacious MP Adam Vaughan inadvertently outed what has been the party’s real scheme on housing for six years — pushing a policy that only worsens extreme unaffordability in cities like Toronto and Vancouver. ...

Without blinking, Vaughan went on to tell TV Ontario host Steve Paikin that attracting foreign capital is the key to building more housing supply in Canada.

“We have a very good system of foreign investment creating a lot of new housing in Canada as we add immigrants and grow the population,” said Vaughan, a former Toronto city councillor who is now parliamentary secretary for families, children, social development and housing.

Whatever is going on in Vaughn’s heart, the reality is the Liberals’ housing strategy is privileging foreign investors and directing billions to Canada’s politically powerful development lobby at the same time it’s drastically undermining local families who have been waiting for an opening into owning.

Ron Butler, a prominent Canadian mortgage provider and real-estate analyst, says a few housing-policy observers have been complaining about this unspoken Liberal policy for years. Developers and their allies have often shut them down by labelling them xenophobic.

“The influx of foreign money started small, then grew. At first the government denied it, calling anyone who pointed it out as racist. By the time it was ridiculously obvious, it was easier to turn it into a policy,” said Butler, who has been spoken highly of by Evan Siddall, who was until recently head of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Fuelled by the way Ottawa has been printing money, handing out pandemic benefits at a globally record rate and offering extremely low interest rates, house prices in Greater Toronto, Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley have gone up 20 to 25 per cent since COVID-19 hit a year ago.

Last fall, Vancouver ranked as the second most unaffordable city out of 100 major metropolises in the English-speaking world and beyond, according to Demographia. Toronto is fifth worst.

 

At the end of the day, only those grease the palms will own property in a country in which they are not citizens.