Much ink has been spilt in recent weeks about housing affordability in the Lower Mainland. With no actual evidence, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Condo King Bob Rennie have settled on a foreign speculators’ tax to help cool prices. Some polling shows the idea to have support among many residents.

Nothing is more popular than a tax on someone else. Tax houses with blue doors, and you’re bound to get the support of people with red doors.

Before any such tax is considered, our leaders should collect some, you know, actual evidence that speculators are driving up housing costs. This debate is far from settled.

Let’s say they put this tax in, and housing prices continue to rise. Will the Robertsons of the world look at seniors living in expensive real estate, often purchased 30 or more years ago, and see them as a threat to affordability? After all, why should only one or two people live in a home when there could be 10 or 12? It’s a slippery slope, politics like this.

If Robertson really wanted to tackle housing affordability, he’d look in the mirror. Taxes and onerous government regulations are a key driver of housing prices. Stay tuned – we’ll be digging into this in the weeks and months to come.