According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the national average home price in September 2021 was $686,650 – an increase of 27% from before the pandemic. In Greater Toronto – the average home price is almost $1.1 million. In Greater Vancouver, it’s close to $1.2 million. To say that housing has become unaffordable in most parts of Canada is an understatement.
Two weeks ago, RBC released its latest housing affordability measure. It jumped 2.7% in the last quarter – the biggest quarterly increase in more than three decades.
During the past election, housing affordability was a top issue for millions of Canadians – especially those under 40 who aspire to own a home but feel that dream is becoming harder and harder to achieve.
On this episode of inFocus, I’m joined by Michael Bourque, the Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Real Estate Association. CREA represents more than 135,000 real estate brokers, agents, and salespeople working through 78 real estate Boards and Associations across Canada.
Michael and I spoke about housing affordability, the politics of the issue, and what is needed from government policy to make the dream of homeownership a reality for more Canadians.
The questions you ask are more important than the answers you get. I think that should be the mantra of every public opinion researcher and consumer of polls. More important, good researchers must be inquisitive, open-minded, and prepared to understand and appreciate the true nature of the human being who is about to be tasked with completing your questionnaire. My guest this week on inFocus knows a thing or two about writing survey questionnaires. She wrote a book about it. Dr. Annie Pettit is a public opinion and market researcher with more than 20 years experience working with some of the leading research agencies in Canada. Dr. Pettit has a PhD in psychology from York University where she specialized in online survey data quality. She currently consults for a range of traditional and technology research suppliers, is a member of the Canadian Research Insights Council Standards Committee, and is chair of the Canadian ISO standards committee. She’s also the author of the book “People Aren’t Robots: A practical guide to the psychology and technique of questionnaire design” published in 2016. She joined me this week to talk about asking questions, writing questionnaires, and why this step in the research process is so important. ...
In this episode of inFocus, I share some thoughts and the findings of Abacus Data's latest poll on Canadian politics completed after the release of the Federal Budget. For all the details on the poll check out the release on the Abacus Data website.Have rest of the week! ...
What is it like running a national election campaign? How does polling impact the decisions made on a campaign? I’m excited to explore these questions with Hamish Marshall, the national campaign manager for the Conservative Party of Canada’s 2019 election campaign. Hamish is currently a partner at ONE Persuades. Prior to that, he ran the 2019 Conservative Party campaign, was campaign manager for Andrew Scheer’s successful bid to become Conservative Leader and previously worked in Stephen Harper’s PMO. Hamish and I unpack the experience running the campaign and talk about the roll that polling plays in election campaigning. He’s been at the centre of Canadian politics and shares his perspective on the future of the Conservative movement in Canada and his experience running a campaign that almost defeated Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. ...
