Housing affordability, market interventions, and policy platforms in the 2022 Ontario provincial election

Abstract

AbstractSince the Great Recession, many cities around the world have undergone extreme demographic changes as people and capital resettle into urban areas. This has resulted in issues of gentrification and displacement forcing many governments to address growing concerns of housing insecurity. Housing policy is a function of political ideologies and social conditions drawing from market‐based housing supply (MBHS) solutions or demand‐side interventions (DSI) to alleviate housing cost burdens. Yet, debates on their effectiveness have often undermined their ability to grow to scale leaving many households in precarious housing situations. This paper focuses on the 2022 Ontario provincial election to uncover how Canadian political parties frame housing insecurity and their policy platforms. This paper finds all political parties promote the MBHS framework, yet various degrees of the DSI framework. Embedded within this variation are questions of federalism with responsibility shifting between provincial and municipal governments. The findings reveal while different forms of neoliberal ideology inform the policy platforms of political parties, federalism plays a significant role in framing the level and scale of government involvement.