(PM.) Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre released his latest political ad straight to X. He posted the video Saturday and it’s a mini-documentary on what the Official Opposition leader calls Canada’s “housing hell.”
As of Monday morning, it’s already been viewed 3.3 million times.
Housing hell: How we got here and how we get out. pic.twitter.com/vVLsXMVM35
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) December 2, 2023
The video begins with Poilievre saying, “Something new and strange is happening in Canada.” While he speaks, there are pictures of a typical tent city on the screen.
“Something we haven’t seen before: an entire generation of youth now say they will never be able to buy a home. This is not normal for Canada,” Poilievre adds.
But then the crux of Canada’s housing crisis, increasingly cited by voters as a key issue in deciding for whom they will vote in the next federal election, is unrolled.
“After generations of affordable and stable Canadian home prices, it now takes 66 percent of the average monthly income to make payments on the average single detached Canadian house.”
“Given that most of the remaining 34 percent of the family paycheck is taken up by taxes, there’s literally nothing left for food and recreation. And that all assumes that you have enough for a downpayment to get the mortgage in the first place.”
“Saving up for that downpayment in Toronto now takes an average of 25 years. Not long ago, you paid off a mortgage in that time, so young people must rent—but rent has doubled in the last eight years.”
Poilievre’s message would appear to be perfectly in sync with how Canadian voters view the housing mess and economic malaise that they face.
While polling reveals the growing anxiety over housing—whether it’s finding some or keeping up with rising interest rates—Canadians are increasingly blaming the Trudeau government’s lenient immigration policy for the crisis. The country’s new immigration minister, Marc Miller, promised to implement an annual 500,000 “cap” on new immigrants by 2026—after the next federal election.
The sky’s the limit in the meantime.
Other polls reveal other ominous warnings for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government on climate change and the economy.
A recent Angus Reid survey found that a plurality of Canadians think the Conservatives are the best party to manage climate change. Poilievre’s party received 28 percent support versus 14 percent for the Liberals.
