The cringe

Well, that was embarrassing.

A week ago the prime minister dropped in on Vancouver brandishing five billion to make homes cheaper. He mentioned more than three billion of that will go for infrastructure so developers won’t have to pay for it – lowering the cost of the houses they build. By forty grand a piece.

Then he said that along with the province they’ll be Hoovering up 2,200 new but empty and unsold condos, turning them into ‘affordable housing.’

No timeline. No details. No costs. No strategy. No in-depth explainer document. No follow-up media scrum. No plan for buyers.

It was bush league, amateurish and naïve. It risked making the PM look like he belongs in North Korea. Embarrassing.

After catching the first plane west, Con leader Pierre Poilievre piled on. There were no facts, so he made some up. He claimed it was purely a bail-out for developers. He said taxpayers would wipe away their risk and screw up the free market. He called it socialism. And a giant ‘wealth transfer from the have-nots to the have-yachts”.

Here he is…

Embarrassing.

After PP fired up his base, ignited his trove of social media influencers and greased the loins of this pathetic blog’s steerage section, all hell broke loose. Suddenly this thoughtful, delicate, sensitive site was hammered with vitriol from those who believed the fibs. Rich, greedy billionaire developers – who deserve a painful death by having scorpions dropped into their boxer shorts – would have their losses papered over. Taxpayers would be screwed. Carney was a commie. It was a disgusting display of Liberal tax-and-spend excess, made all the worse because developers (who should die) probably lobbied for the $3.2 billion bailout and financially support these puppet politicians.

Seriously. Go read the angry crap you posted here this week. Embarrassing.

Well, admitting he screwed up by announcing something that was half-baked and stripped of context, Mark Carney yesterday provided key missing details.

The plan was hatched by BC, not the feds, he said. That province will be paying 90% of the cost. Ottawa just 10%.

The condo units will be purchased at “distressed values” yet to be negotiated.

The total cost of buying 2,200 units would be $1.45 billion. That would put a two-bedroom unit at an average cost of $659,000, not the $1.45 million the loonies on X stated. Of that, BC would pay $593,000. The total fed tab for these two thousand homes would be $145 million.

No developers asked for this. Carney said they would not be happy with the ‘distressed’ price.

If the program happens, then families would be able to move into the units on a rent-to-buy basis, since they lack the downpayment funds to purchase a home in YVR.

The program, Carney told reporters, is not to bail out developers. It’s to put two thousand families into housing units they are now locked out of. This would be far quicker, and likely far cheaper, than putting up new construction.

Of course, if units end up changing hands at a 50% discount from current market value, governments will have played a major role in repricing Vancouver condos. Instead of socializing losses, the plan would make developers eat them – without forcing them into insolvency and risking future construction and supply. It would also house two thousand households, while two thousand housing units sat empty.

Sure, it could go off the rails. Poilievre may have valid reasons to crap once again on Canada. The ankle-biters and victims in the steerage section could be justified in their moral outrage. And it won’t be the last time the banker-boy grievously misjudges the rabble he leads.

But it’s all cringe. Admit it.

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Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2026/06/26/the-cringe/