Housing speculation a big debate topic — unless you want to lead the B.C. Liberals

When the six candidates for leader of the B.C. Liberal Party met for a debate last week — the last one before members choose a winner next Saturday — there was plenty they argued about.

Who is the best person to show the party has undergone renewal? How would they continue to grow B.C.'s economy? Is experience in cabinet a virtue or a detriment? 

It wasn't until 80 minutes into the debate that a question was posed about the price of housing in Metro Vancouver — not surprising, if you've been following the campaign.

"We can be bold," said Mike de Jong. "Let's extend our transit networks out into the [Fraser] Valley ... and rezone and build up and provide the homes that people need and get them into our major population centres."

Then he and fellow candidate Sam Sullivan, who asked the question, talked for another minute about how it was important to put pressure on local governments to increase density. 

And that was it. Less than five minutes, on the topic that 50 per cent of British Columbians just said was the most important issue in the province, according to an Insights West survey.

Supply, not demand

The exchange was indicative of how the B.C. Liberals have approached housing through the campaign: a topic brought up only occasionally, and nearly always framed in the context of having to build more units. 

"The housing affordability challenge is the number one concern today," said Todd Stone. "This is the challenge, I think, of our time, to make sure our kids can get into the market." 

Stone and Michael Lee are the only two candidates with platforms addressing housing speculation, with Stone also suggesting a province-wide vacant homes tax.  

But they're much more enthusiastic when talking about ways the government could increase supply, rather than reduce demand.  

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"I really think the greatest opportunity to apply downward pressure on rising housing prices is on the supply," said Stone. "There are 120,000 units of housing in Metro Vancouver today that the private sector wants to build, but can't, because they're awaiting approval."

"We all have a role to play. The provincial government should have shown more leadership, certainly," said Lee. 

"But it is something that municipalities, when you look at supply, they have the primary responsibility to get through the zoning process, to ensure that the 100,000 units in the pipeline get developed."

Electoral reform referendum top issue

What does animate the six contenders, more than any other issue, is the government's referendum — scheduled for later this year — for electoral reform to a proportional representation way of electing MLAs.

Andrew Wilkinson put it as the first section of his platform and has a petition against the idea. Todd Stone said the referendum represents "perhaps the single greatest attack to our democracy." Next to low taxes and balanced budgets, it's the one point of commonality among them all.

While the referendum may be a big issue to the candidates — and quite likely many B.C. Liberal members — it doesn't appear to be with the general public at this point. The government has led a public engagement on how the referendum should work, but to date, less than 12,000 people have completed an online survey. 

"So far, it's been a very low-profile issue," said Wilkinson, who says he's determined to change that if he becomes Liberal leader. 

"It is fundamental to our society, and people in the Interior and north totally understand that. In the Lower Mainland, people haven't really woken up to the issue yet ... I think with full information, a lot of people will say 'why are we changing the fundamentals of our democracy?'"

Perhaps. But if the biggest topic of discussion in the Lower Mainland continues to be the price of real estate, rather than how future elections are contested, the new B.C. Liberal leader may need to pivot their priorities once they start campaigning to a general audience.