Why Pierre Poilievre keeps bringing up Swedish castles and Kitchener homes in speeches
What do castles in Sweden have to do with the Canadian election?
Absolutely nothing. But their cost compared to a very modest house in Kitchener, Ont., has been a recurring topic in just about every Pierre Poilievre campaign rally speech since the writ was dropped.
While laying out examples of the “lost Liberal decade” and illustrating the growing cost of housing in Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada will point out “that you can actually buy a castle in Sweden for a lower price than a midsize house in Kitchener,” or something to that effect.
It’s been a familiar refrain from Poilievre since not long after he became party leader.
It was a talking point during his first Tory convention speech as leader in 2023 and again last year . In Ottawa, he’s brought it up in the House of Commons multiple times and outside the West Block on Parliament Hill. He’s also referenced it while speaking with people around the country , and in pre-election events this year.
In an email to National Post, a Conservative party spokesperson cited Poilievre’s source as both an October 2023 CTV News story about a couple from Fergus, Ont., who upgraded to a French castle and a National Post piece from months earlier about a new TikTok series from a user who goes by Millennial Moron.
“I didn’t know that he was doing it recently. But it’s been happening quite a bit over the past couple of years,” he said when contacted by National Post. “I haven’t really kept track of it since then.”
In the satirical series, which now has 27 parts, Millennial Moron compares two real estate listings: an average or sometimes run-down home in Toronto or Vancouver and an actual castle or chateau on a sprawling estate somewhere in Europe. It’s his way of illustrating just how unaffordable Canada’s housing market has become in some of its most densely populated areas.
In Part 17 , for instance, he compares 821 Queensway in Toronto — a very modest three-bedroom, two bath on a small lot — with a nearly 60,000 square-foot 15th-century Italian fortress with 23 beds and baths, and other opulent luxuries.
The Canadian property was listed at $9,999,999 while the estate in Italy was going for just under $9.8 million.
Millennial Moron, whose series juxtaposing homes with private islands pre-dated the castles idea, has amassed over a quarter-million followers across his social pages, almost 180,000 coming from TikTok . His other content has a slightly more serious tone and deals mostly with the real estate and housing sectors from a statistical standpoint, with semi-regular unbiased dabbles in the political sphere.
(More curious parties should visit his tongue-in-cheek food pun election survey pitting Mark Carnitas against steak au Poilievre. The Grit dish was leading 105-61 as of Monday evening.)
He told National Post doesn’t mind that his effort on one specific video is being indirectly referenced as part of a political campaign, since it’s bringing attention to an issue he feels should be of paramount importance to Canadians.
“But at the same time, I’m not that enthused about him referencing my work specifically and repeatedly because I think that both the Liberals and Conservatives have some responsibility for this issue over the last 20 years,” he said.
Millennial Moron said only now are governments — municipal, provincial and federal — starting to focus on addressing scarcity and building more homes instead relying on of successive federal governments that have used low interest rates, allowing people to take on onerous mortgage debt, as the primary solution.
“This is an idea for this series I had before Justin Trudeau became prime minister. I just didn’t think of a funny way to do it until a couple of years ago,” the TikToker said.
He likes the CPC and Liberal plans on housing “in principle,” but he doesn’t think either “has a well-rounded and well-developed” enough solution to tackle the significant municipal barriers that sometimes result in purpose-built housing being completed years after they are first proposed.
“So when we have politicians on a four-year electoral cycle saying that we want to get this done by 2030, it makes me quite skeptical that they have any ability to do that,” he added.
Poilievre has promised the CPC will cut the federal portion of GST on new homes up to $1.3 million and reimburse cities 50 per cent for every dollar of development charge reduced to a max of $25,000.
Mark Carney and the Liberals’ Build Canada Strong plan aims to “double the pace of construction to almost 500,000 new homes a year.”
They’ll do so by cutting the GST on homes at or under $1 million for first-time homebuyers, incentivizing “red tape” reduction at the municipal level, and establishing a new agency called Build Canada Homes to act “as a developer to build affordable housing at scale, including on public lands.” It will provide $10 billion in low-cost financing and capital to affordable home builders.
“For the projects to actually get built, they still need to be financially viable, particularly for purpose-built rental housing,” said Millennial Moron, who advises people explore all the parties’ position on housing to best inform their decision.
If you’re really serious about housing, he said, become more aware and involved with what’s happening in your own backyard.
“If people actually care about housing as an issue, then they need to get more aware and more involved in municipal politics, where they can’t have a bigger impact because there (are) fewer people involved.
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