Ford really should support fourplexes
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is known for many things: hunger for Tim Hortons baked goods, a fondness for the word “folks” and a tendency to take a blow torch to political process and decorum.
In 2018, Ford slashed the size of Toronto city council mid-election from 47 councillors to 25; in 2022 the premier enhanced then Toronto mayor John Tory’s so-called “strong mayor” powers, a move that some on city council’s left all but characterized as a slide into fascism. And if the details of the Greenbelt scandal aren’t proof that the premier doesn’t play by the rules, I’m not sure what is.
Simply put, Premier Ford doesn’t shy away from the opportunity to blow things up. It’s a shame then, that when Ontario needs a profound shock to its system, Ford is playing it safe, much like many of the downtown city councillors he disdains.
I’m referring to the premier’s recent comments on housing in Ontario; a province that is losing tens of thousands of young people to other provinces every year, in part due to its housing crisis. In fact, it is precisely because of federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s “Build homes fast” rhetoric that so many millennials and gen-Zers are leaning right at the moment. According to reporting from the Star’s Robert Benzie, Poilievre’s popularity may even be benefitting Ford’s Conservatives in the polls.
We’ll see how long that lasts. For where the federal Conservative leader is aggressive in tone on the housing file, promising to “fire gatekeepers,” premier Ford appears intent to reward them.
Consider the fact that last week, Ford said he would not automatically allow fourplex homes to be built across Ontario, calling a move to override municipal prohibitions to allow this “a massive mistake.”
“It’s off the table for us,” Ford told reporters. “We’re going to build homes, single dwelling homes, townhomes, that’s what we’re focused on.”
Not only does this stance fly in the face of recommendations by the province’s housing affordability task force; it flies in the face of reality as any Ontarian can see it. Single dwellings are not going to get us out of the housing crisis.
Deferring to NIMBY voters (while cutting novelty cheques to municipalities that meet their housing targets no less) is not going to get us out of the housing crisis.
What could get us there — or at least partially there — is a total rewrite of the housing landscape at every level.
That means welcoming additional neighbours beside us, below us and above us. This doesn’t mean building skyscrapers on quiet residential streets, but rather, expanding our imaginations to allow for modest and in many cases highly attractive fourplexes on residential streets to give young families a fighting chance of remaining in Ontario.
If the premier is concerned that older homeowners in Conservative ridings will abandon him if he embraces so-called “missing middle” density, he should consider two things.
The first is that he has an excellent track record of defying odds where scandal and low polling is concerned.
The second is that millions of older homeowners are the worried parents of struggling millennial kids with young children of their own. Those homeowners do not want to lose easy access to their grandkids when their kids move out of province to more affordable markets in Alberta and Nova Scotia.
The premier should personalize the issue of fourplexes to a voter base that does not want to see the next generation priced out of the market. He can also appeal to their bottom lines.
Homeowners may not like the idea of density on residential streets, but they probably like subsidizing their adult children’s lives even less — especially when that means using their hard-earned life savings to help with their kids’ down payments.
More homes everywhere, now, is a boon not only for the people who wind up living in fourplexes. It is a boon to everyone in their lives — Tory voters included. When it comes to the housing file, Premier Doug Ford should do what he does best: throw caution to the wind.