If housing affordability is a big issue for you, the upcoming provincial election should be good as all three parties are talking a lot about it. I’ve been working on housing issues on Salt Spring with many others for a while now, and wanted to dig deeper behind the slogans to see which parties might make the most difference for us.

Housing is a crisis in many communities across Canada, but the conditions making it so bad on Salt Spring are unique. Living in a conservation zone dominated by tourist and retirement economies, and with no local government able to build its own projects or drive change at the local level, means a lot of the big ticket funding, province wide policy changes, or other programs won’t apply here.

But looking ahead to the election, let’s see what the parties have to offer. Conservatives seem to be making a play for working class voters, running on a platform of fixing how unaffordable life has gotten. The BC Conservative website is mostly big emotional statements with no details offered. Their local mailer doesn’t mention housing, but the two housing policies on their website are to build, baby build, and something about stopping money laundering.

I guess building more sounds great, except for two things. Any visit to the lumber store will show how busy most tradespeople on the island are, and have been for years now. We are building, baby, building, although only for one kind of buyer - big homes, for the wealthiest citizens. I’ve asked my friends in the trades how many homes “for normal people” they are working on, and the answer is usually, one in 10, or none at all.

Also, how would simply building even more aggressively apply in an area protected by the Islands Trust? Will Conservatives respect the environmental protections unique to a Trust Area?

There is a bigger reason why I don’t trust Conservatives on affordability, and that’s because Conservative parties are historically dominated by big business and investor types. Not much discussed in the newfound attention to the root causes of housing unaffordability is the “financialization” of housing - when homes became not a place to live but an investment vehicle. Far too much of our country’s housing is owned by investors, or worse yet massive, faceless REIT’s on Toronto’s Bay Street. This is a far harder problem to solve and no one wants to talk about it.

I would trust the Conservatives on affordability more if they would talk about solutions that rein in the corporate and investor greed that has created a system so heavily stacked against renters and young people. That would mean challenging their big donors, so I'm not holding my breath.

Now let’s get to the Greens. Affordable housing is a top three issue on the postcard they sent to my house, great! A review of the BC Greens website offers no current platform, but a document called their Policy Book does offer a few vague, general principles about housing. I’ll bet they have some newer ideas but they haven’t shared them yet.

Here’s where things get challenging for the Greens. Last year right here on Salt Spring, it was largely Green party supporters who were the organizers against the only affordable housing bylaw the Islands Trust has proposed to deal with our housing crisis.

The Accessory Dwelling Unit bylaw in question had its flaws, but legalizing ADU’s was the best our anemic Trust could come up with. What was notable was the intensity with which the “environment-only” movement came out to spread exaggerations on how small housing for lower income people would destroy the island, and how aggressively they organized to kill it. Never once did we hear about amendments or alternative solutions the Trust could instead put forward that they would be OK with. And only silence from our Green elected officials.

So maybe the Greens have now figured out people matter too, but in order to be more trusted on housing they would have to clarify what real policies they would endorse locally, and explain how they will tame the most radical of the anti-housing crowd who makes up a big part of their supporter base.

That leaves the NDP. They have the most clear track record on housing, not surprising as it’s been the top priority of Premier Eby since he took over, and he’s had enough time now to implement his ideas. I am not a long time NDP supporter, but I have been impressed by their transformative work here, which fits their roots as a working class party long focused on social equity.

From the empty homes tax to airbnb restrictions, laws to stop reno-victions or municipal bylaw over-ruling that allows more density, they have proposed some big changes (notably: none of which apply here, but that’s a story for a different day). The NDP has put up big money for rental and non-profit housing, and just last week announced the creation of almost 2,500 homes in Vancouver at 40% under market rates via an innovative partnership with First Nations. The Globe newspaper says they are Canada’s national leader on this file.

On housing, the NDP are impressive, while the other two parties are largely incoherent.

Now to be fair, the NDP are themselves incoherent on another important issue for many Salt Springers, the environment. Their attempts to balance corporate and northern B.C. interests on LNG expansion, oil subsidies, old growth forests, and the huge BC coal industry have all been letdowns. I hope a progressive NDP MLA from our riding will help push the government further especially on climate change.

But with the Conservatives promising to blow up everything the NDP has ever done, including explicitly ending their housing policies, and the inconsistency inherent in the Green worldview, the gap between what these two parties say and what they do is too wide for me.

If housing matters to you, the NDP and their local candidate Sarah Riddell offers the most comprehensive and credible solutions.