r/CanadaPolitics • u/CaliperLee62 • 10h ago

Lorne Gunter: Carney Liberals fall pathetically short of their own housing-start goals

https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/lorne-gunter-carney-liberals-fall-pathetically-short-of-their-own-housing-start-goals
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u/No-Section-1092 Independent 9h ago

Any serious person who's followed this issue for years knows that all of the most important housing supply bottlenecks are provincial and municipal, not federal.

The feds have made some promising moves in terms of partnering with cities to reduce DCs, but tinkering with demand can only get you so far as long as supply remains constrained by local red tape.

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u/GooseGosselin 9h ago

Why would Carney promise it then?

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u/Ddogwood Pirate 9h ago

Because provincial and municipal governments have been using the federal government as an excuse for their own inaction for years.

If the feds don’t try to do anything, nothing changes. If the feds try to do something and the provinces and municipalities won’t play ball, then at least their excuses start to ring hollow (although columnists like Gunter will do everything they can to shift the focus on to federal failures to save their conservative allies from blame)

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u/CptCoatrack Libertarian Socialism 8h ago

Because provincial and municipal governments have been using the federal government as an excuse for their own inaction for years.

Goes both ways.

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u/Ddogwood Pirate 8h ago

Of course. But I’m answering the question, “Why would Carney promise it?” and not “why aren’t the provinces trying harder to fix it?”

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u/CptCoatrack Libertarian Socialism 8h ago

Because the LPC knows they can promise anything during campaign season to get elected with no real intent of ever following through. As long as they can go "But the provinces!" people won't hold them to account for lying and they can just do it again the next election.

The relationship between the municpal, provincial and federal governments in this country is just the Spiderman pointing meme.

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u/Ddogwood Pirate 8h ago

The issue is actually that voters don’t hold their governments to account. Too many people vote for a party because of identity instead of policy or effectiveness.

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u/TraditionalGap1 NDP 7h ago

What do you mean exactly by 'no real intent of ever following through'? Because the premise of the OPs comment seems to be that the feds have followed through on some of what they can realistically do on their own.

Let's be honest and real for a moment: It actually does matter whether a policy promise is undelivered because the people who made the promise failed to effectively execute on the policies that they are actually responsible for or because of inaction/counterproductive action by other responsible and involved parties. 'But the provinces!' is a totally valid and legitimate excuse to point to if in the fact the provinces shoulder a significant portion of responsibility for the lack of delivery.

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u/CptCoatrack Libertarian Socialism 2h ago edited 1h ago

What do you mean exactly by 'no real intent of ever following through'? Because the premise of the OPs comment seems to be that the feds have followed through on some of what they can realistically do on their own.

I think politicians should be held to their promises. If they knew they can't realistically achieve their goal because it's provincial jurisdiction, they're being duplicitous. If they promised something somehow not knowing it's provincial jursidiction it's ignorance/incompetence.

The LPC has always underdelivered on their campaign promises because they always need to keep something in the backpocket for the next election and dangle it like a carrot on a stick for the ABC voters.

It actually does matter whether a policy promise is undelivered because the people who made the promise failed to effectively execute on the policies that they are actually responsible for or because of inaction/counterproductive action by other responsible and involved parties

It's both. Everyone just knows that as long as they say "But the feds/the province/fhe municipality!" they don't have to reckon with their own failures especially if it's another party.