I am a 29 year old…

I am a 29 year old registered conservative. Every day, I take a look at the housing market and related news, and am puzzled by how I will ever be able to afford a home.

Even then, I cannot support this re-zoning plan. If this zoning plan goes through, I will no longer be supporting the Conservatives at the next election.

I recently met with a financial advisor to talk about retirement savings. He asked me about what kind of retirement I wanted. I wasn't really able to answer him. I always thought travelling would be my ultimate goal. But looking at the news, I dont really know what kind of world will be left by 2060. The Great Barrier reef bleaching, the Amazon all but gone, the west coast wilderness disappearing in blazes. When I drive through the Ontario farmlands and see patches of what use to be greenspace and farmland being turned into generic McMansion suburbs, it makes me want to give up. What of my childhood will I be able to share with my children? "See that highway over there kids? That use to be a wetland where we use to go hiking and see the butterflies spawn ever spring".

We dont need more sprawling suburbs of 2 million dollar mansions planted out in the middle of nowhere, without any connection to the rest of the GTA. We need more vibrant, medium to high density communities in walking distance to transit hubs and amenities, with smaller homes we can actually aspire to afford. We need our wetlands and waterways protected so that our future generations can see what this land use to look like. We need to protect our food networks because Covid has shown us how delicate our supply chains really are.

We need to stop taking the easy way out for every problem we face. I know the obvious solution to our current housing crisis is to build more homes in open lands. I know the pockets of many powerful figures in ontario will be lined with cash from developers for this rezoning. But that isnt why I supported conservatives. I supported them because I hoped they would be willing to take on the challenge of facing problems of today while protecting our heritage. I voted conservatives because I was scared about how our culture was being changed. But the wilderness, greenspace, and farming communities is the foundation of our culture. It is what made us Canadians. Please protect that like you promised.