During his decade as prime minister and Liberal leader, Jean Chrétien governed with a single overarching philosophy: underpromise and overdeliver. Justin Trudeau’s government, on the other hand, seems to subscribe to the opposite formulation.
Take last Friday’s news conference in Toronto, one that was billed by the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation as a “major” announcement and ended up being about 260 new homes in a city of nearly three million people, with just 86 of them being designated as affordable. Worse, it was actually a reannouncement of money that had already been allocated in Budget 2022.
The only thing major about this announcement is the insult it represents to the millions of Canadians who are underhoused or priced out right now. The CMHC, after all, has said Ontario needs 1.85 million new homes by the end of this decade in order to bring prices down to…
