The ‘1.5 million’ homes meme must stop

Doug Ford is hell-bent on building another 1.5 million McMansions.

He thinks it’ll lead to a win with the public, but all it is is a ‘win’ for the developers that back his campaigning and time in office. Currently, the OPP have investigated the claims by environmental groups and claim there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing, but give it time.

In order to fulfill his obsession with 1.5 million houses that we don’t need, he’s ripping apart our education system.

He’s turning our education system into a Victorian-era sweatshop for pumping out teens barely able to cope with the tragedy and trauma of social isolation for the last 3 years. The launch of the new ‘Ontario Apprenticeship Program’ nicking kids out of school as early as Grade 10.

I mean, what student would want to stay in school after what they’ve gone through for the last few years with public education? An escape route would seem like a god-send. Add to this: the decrepit underfunding and hardball negotations that have taken place between the Ford government and unions, grinding down the will of the teachers in the process. Add to this: the massive transfer of taxpayer capital to companies like Microsoft to build online education platforms.

Please sir, can I have some more ….

But god dammit, we need those 1.5 million houses for imaginary immigrants that the radical right (one of Ford’s essential core of supporters) doesn’t even want in Canada.

So, we need to stop the meme that we actually NEED these 1.5 million houses.

It’s. Just. A. Lie.

If we really wanted to free up space – without destroying our greenspaces in Ontario – we could do something more effective like banning Airbnb and VRBO. Or we could proceed in a correct direction and implement a foreign ownership tax on secondary properties. This would free up more lower-income housing for those trying to get a start in the world.