Gregor Robertson still doesn't get it

National Observer

15-05-2025

Like many Canadians, I was prepared to give Gregor Robertson a second chance. As a born and raised Vancouverite and someone who has been writing (and warning) about the housing market for almost two decades now, the appointment of Robertson as Canada's new housing minister didn't exactly fill me with optimism. His track record as mayor of Vancouver includes a 179 per cent increase in home prices that effectively priced an entire generation out of that city's housing market — and, in effect, out of that city.
In fairness, nobody's track record during that period was very good, and much of the increase in home prices was due to inaction or indifference by the federal and provincial governments. Even so, given his obvious association with the period where Canada's housing market started to run away from millions of people, he was a risky choice as housing minister. His first few days on the job have shown why.
For all of his well-documented telegenic charm, Roberston has never been a particularly effective communicator. That was on full display during his interview with the CBC's David Cochrane, where he seemed conspicuously short on answers and long on excuses. 'It's going to take years,' he told Cochrane. 'This is decades of building up a problem, so it's not going to be fixed overnight.' He refused to give a specific date when asked when his government would deliver on its promise to double home building. 'We're years away,' he reiterated.
Cochrane captured the stakes of his new job at the end of the interview. 'I think every Canadian under 40 is counting on you,' Cochrane said, to which Robertson replied, 'Including my kids.' But, of course, Robertson's kids will be just fine. In Gregor Robertson's Vancouver, the children of wealthy and privileged homeowners were more than fine, actually; they were lottery winners. It was everyone else struggling — and, often, failing — to keep their heads above the economic waterline.
When asked if Robertson's appointment was a signal that housing prices should not go down, Carney said that 'you would be very hard-pressed to make that conclusion.' Robertson then went out and made that conclusion for everyone the very next day, telling reporters that he doesn't think house prices need to go down — and that Canada needs to deliver more supply instead. That, of course, would make prices go down, all other things being equal.
This is the truth that most federal politicians are still afraid to say out loud. If we're actually going to address housing affordability in this country, and especially overheated markets like Vancouver and Toronto, prices have to come down. Yes, that might mean that homeowners will miss out on some of the equity that's accumulated in their homes. But as former Housing Minister Nate Erskine-Smith said back in January during an interview with the Toronto Star, 'It's not the government's job to protect a certain amount of equity that has built up in a person's home.'
Unless and until Carney and his new housing minister are willing to say the quiet part out loud, as Erskine-Smith did, it's going to be hard to take their housing pledges and policies seriously. No, they're not going to be able to single-handedly transform Canada's housing market overnight. It may well take years, as Robertson said, to see real progress on affordability. But they could change the way they talk about the issue right now, and in so doing let Canadians know they actually understand what needs to be done.
Of all Mark Carney's cabinet picks, his decision to name former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson as his housing minister was the most controversial. So far, at least, it's also proving to be his most disastrous.
That's why, if Robertson is going to win the trust and confidence of Canadians, he needs to acknowledge some of the mistakes he made as mayor of Vancouver, from his decision to initially downplay the risks associated with foreign investment to his habit of cozying up with the city's real estate developers.
(So far, at least, he seems more interested in defending that record than learning from it.)
Robertson needs to be honest about the tradeoffs involved, and stop pretending that we can somehow massively ramp up the construction of affordable housing without impacting the broader housing market and its often ludicrous prices. And if he won't do these things, Carney needs to find someone who will — and fast.
The next election, whenever it comes, will be a referendum on the progress Carney's team has made on housing and other key cost of living issues. And this time, good intentions and big plans won't be nearly enough to placate young voters. The Liberals were given one stay of political execution on this issue, both because of Justin Trudeau's resignation and Donald Trump's menacing threats. They will not get a second one.