How Canada’s media manufactures sympathy for the landlord class

Canada's media is full of sob stories about the supposed plight of landlords.

It isn’t real journalism—it’s an effort to disguise the exploitation of the housing market.

Martin Lukacs explains how the media teaches us to pity the landlord class, rather than be pissed at them.

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[sding]

most MPs are landlord, home shortage and labour shortage are by design

[ZainR]

Well this renewed my hate in landlords.

[ericmilligan]

Yes! Thank you so much. So sick of this.

[eddyrapide]

My feeling is that predatory landlords should face legal and financial penalties that are shockingly severe. Landlording should be transformed into a very precarious, very risky activity. If that results in a reduced incentive for private developers to build new units, as landlord groups are always saying will happen, then so much the better. Then governments can get back into the business of building public housing on a very large scale.

[denelson]

Yep. Whenever I see a report on a "victimized landlord", especially now in the middle of a housing crisis, my BS detector immediately goes off.

[squatch]

I wish I could 'like' this video 100x. I live in AB, and I am being reno-victed from a basement duplex. When I asked my landlady why? She said, "Because I can". The tenant next door is a senior, and she jacked up his rent by 30%. He protested that he was a senior on a fixed income. I overheard the landlady say to him, "That's not my problem".

[mikearchibald]

In New Brunswick I remember years ago it was discovered that boarding house tenants weren't even included in the Residential Tenants Act. Meaning, they LITERALLY had no rights at all. An activist at the time talked about how they wouldn't talk to him because he was a blogger and the house 'managers' were always watching.

I didn't do much, but my only contribution to his complaints was that I read the act and noticed that ALL the government had to do was add ONE LINE to the RTA. It took SIX YEARS and two administrations, and then we discovered that in most cities they were making boarding houses illegal anyway.

Just for some perspective, I remember researching and the legislation granted the right to build a natural gas pipeline across the province got its first reading, second, third, and Royal Assent and was enacted in ONE DAY.

What kills me is that the people who only watch SOCIAL media are right about mainstream media, but for the OPPOSITELY wrong reason. They think media is some bunch of communist liberals, which is just outrightly crazy. But they ARE right about how shitty they are.

[bbsbbsa]

excellent video ... we are fed up with landords crying and comtempt for tenants

[danarchist]

It gets me wondering 🤔 how many newsreaders and news executives are landlords? I'm willing to bet it's a great deal of them considering the coverage of the "poor landlord" on Canadian TV.

[philrossner]

Excellent commentary... we had to leave Canada in order to find a location where we could survive on my CPP/OAS. We now rent a beautiful 2 bedroom 2 bathroom Casita in the hills of Panama for 50% LESS than what we were paying for a 1 bedroom apartment in Victoria, BC. Incredible! To the Canadian landlords (vultures) I say... "better call the

[thorinbane]

My rich cousin said they made tons of money but it was a pain in the ass. They only did it to give his wife something to do.

A teachers Salary has been a top earner at 90K+ depending on grade level and dept head etc. But that is hardly meagre. My friend that had 2 teacher parents where way better off than anyone I knew other than tradespeople at the big 3, and that was from working 12 hour shift work.

Being a teacher also meant that your parents before them may have paid or help to pay for your education to get to be in a higher education and salary career. Inheritable money is a secondary issue to the housing crisis.

[hedgehog_fox]

If they don't like it they can always sell. No sympathy from me.

[yshcabana]

Kudos to The Breach for producing this explainer video series

[talktothehandreviews]

Now remember this when you go to vote. Poilievre's family's business is Real Estate. When PP was housing minister he only built SIX HOUSES. His biggest donors are among big REAL ESTATE. His 'pay as you go' housing plan is ridiculous. It holds provinces responsible to DEVELOPERS and only guarantees affordability of those homes for FIVE YEARS. Trudeau and Singh put forth housing initiatives that PP and the Cons voted NO on. Get the picture? AND if anyone wants to know, these are the major Right Wing leaning news organizations: Post Media Network which includes, The National Post, The Financial Post, and The Sun. Cheers!

[meganswaine]

The property owners have way WAY more power than the tenants.

[DJDTM]

Great video very informative and confirms what I was already thinking, thanks for posting!

[adrienbeauduin]

Loansharks are also suffering so much, maybe they should also get media sympathy

[lynb]

Applause. Commenting to help the algorithm. Make this go viral.

[joomlaserviceprovide]

As a landlord I can say that I have busted my butt to become a homeowner, and I put 110K into renovating my basement into a suite. In a world where our corrupt governments have debased our currencies, being a landlord and owning properties is one of the only ways for self employed people such as myself to build wealth. It is not the landlord's fault that the government makes it so expensive to build new housing. Further more, our ridiculous zoning laws make it impossible for smaller players to create more housing. How is it that Canada is the second biggest country in the world and we have a housing crisis?

[PaulRGauthier]

Chairman Mao had some good ideas about landlords.