While it’s always nice to see our community recognized, as North Vancouver and West Vancouver recently were in the Globe & Mail’s annual survey of Canada’s “Most Livable Cities,” Jonathan Wilkinson’s celebratory mailer (brought to you by your taxpayer dollars) highlights a growing disconnect between the Liberal government and the reality many North Vancouver and West Vancouver residents are facing.
For a growing number of families, “liveable” is not the word that comes to mind. Housing costs have reached levels that are simply out of reach for young people, seniors, and even middle-income earners. Renters on the North Shore are struggling with the highest average rents in the Lower Mainland, and homeownership is slipping further out of reach with each passing year. At the same time, the rising cost of everyday essentials—like groceries and fuel—is putting additional pressure on household budgets, leaving many families stretched to the limit. These inflationary pressures are not only felt by our families but also by our local small businesses, who feel the “squeeze” related to rising labour costs, increased commercial rents, and inflationary pressures on materials.
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At the same time, our infrastructure is under real strain. As anyone trying to get home after work can attest to, traffic congestion is really starting to become unmanageable, with effects felt by families and our businesses. Local services that we all count on have been stretched beyond their limits, due to rapid population growth without the corresponding (and needed) investment to support it. Our health care system is also under significant pressure, with long wait times and an ever-increasing number of people unable to find a family doctor.
Yet instead of acknowledging these challenges, Mr. Wilkinson and Carney’s Liberal Party seems content to point to rankings and headlines. That kind of detachment from the daily experience of residents is deeply frustrating and, frankly, is part of the problem.
Conservatives have been clear that improving liveability starts with restoring affordability. That means increasing housing supply by tying federal funding to real results—getting homes built faster, removing bureaucratic barriers, and supporting purpose-built rental construction. It also means taking pressure off inflation through responsible fiscal management, so families can keep more of what they earn.
Pierre Poilievre has also called for meaningful reforms to Canada’s immigration system, linking our population growth to the number of new homes built, and for practical steps to strengthen our health care system—such as supporting provinces in training and retaining more doctors and nurses, creating a national “Blue Seal” program to quickly recognize foreign-trained health care professionals, and improving overall access to care.
These are solutions to the problems facing residents on the North Shore – not just empty words spoken by our politicians.
Celebrating rankings is easy. Addressing these challenges requires honesty about where things stand—and a real plan to fix them.
North Vancouver and West Vancouver are wonderful places to live – the North Shore is my home and where I have chosen to raise my family. For too many people, however, it is becoming less livable by the day. North Shore residents deserve leadership that is grounded in reality and focused on delivering results.
