Canadians are in a fighting mood right now, and with good reason. Between a hostile United States government and separatist movements in Quebec and Alberta, the country is facing down some genuinely existential threats. The good news is that, by and large, most of us are up for the fight, whether that means refusing to travel to America or voting to remain in Canada. There is, however, one fight Canadians keep refusing to take up: housing affordability. 

Don’t get me wrong. We’re willing to support increased housing density when it happens in other people’s cities, neighbourhoods or streets. We back the idea of housing affordability as a concept, as a goal. But when we’re asked to make near-term sacrifices, whether that’s losing some on-street parking or being forced to endure the horrors of a tall building in our vicinity, many — too many — of us are fighting on the wrong side of the battle. 

Nowhere is that more true than in Canada’s biggest cities, where the tension between the housing shortages faced by younger people and the aesthetic preferences of older homeowners seems to become more obvious with each passing day. The recent decision by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to override blanket upzoning rules passed by elected councils in Edmonton and Calgary may have been an appalling abuse of power, but it was also just the latest example of how politicians — of all partisan stripes, to be clear — tend to surrender to the status quo. 

That longstanding track record of political cowardice helps explain why so many mature neighbourhoods in Vancouver and Toronto have failed to grow over the past few decades, and why their schools and parks are increasingly devoid of actual children and families. As The Globe and Mail’s Alex Bozikovic noted in a recent piece, the Toronto District School Board has almost 69,000 empty seats in its jurisdiction, and........

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