Douglas Todd: Eight reasons politicians don’t really want house prices to fall

Most Canadians, according to polls, are willing to see house prices to drop so people squeezed out of ownership, particularly young adults, can obtain some shelter security.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted, for the first time in eight years in power, and in the midst of plummeting poll numbers, that house prices have climbed “far too high”.

His comments, although painfully obvious, amount to an abrupt change in Liberal communications strategy — since, earlier this year, Trudeau’s housing minister refused to acknowledge the country is in a “housing crisis”.

House prices have virtually doubled during the Liberals’ time in charge, and unaffordability, the ratio of house prices to average wages, is now among the worst in the world, especially in Metro Vancouver and Toronto.

The Liberals’ former parliamentary secretary on housing, Toronto MP Adam Vaughn, has been more revealing about what the Liberals have really been thinking all along.