There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear

(With apologies to Buffalo Springfield, and readers who will be humming this for the next few hours)

Yesterday, over on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, there was a fascinating spat among conservatives. Parry Sound-Muskoka MP and Conservative Housing critic Scott Aitchison penned a strongly-worded open letter to Calgary Mayor Gondek and members of Calgary City Council urging them to vote in favour of less restrictive zoning when they revisit the issue this fall. Calgary MP Michelle Rempel-Garner quickly piled on, taking Councillor Sonya Sharp to task as a ‘gatekeeper’ for her initiative to keep zoning as is but shorten the time for building permits.

Pierre Poilievre’s ‘Bring it Home’ campaign has captured the imagination — and support — of younger Canadians and appears likely to land him in the Prime Minister’s Office (but not 24 Sussex, because Canada can’t even seem to manage to address that micro housing issue).

What’s fascinating about yesterday’s public spat is that it demonstrates that the federal Conservatives are willing to jump into bed with urban progressive local politicians in their quest to win over younger urban voters. Poilievre and the urban progressives agree on the need to loosen zoning rules so that single family dwellings can come down and be replaced by duplexes and fourplexes. They agree that this will help address the housing shortage and affordability. Urban progressives are also keen on this because densification of urban areas is a way of reducing GHG emissions; Poilievre hasn’t jumped on that bandwagon, as far as I know.

The common enemy for Poilievre’s Conservatives and the urban progressive councillors is … a bunch of conservative (and sometimes Conservative) Calgary City Councillors. Calgary is the spiritual home of the Canadian conservative movement, and suddenly the city councillors who were holding the line against ‘progressive silliness’ are being taken to task by their federal comrades.

This puts the conservative-leaning folks on Calgary city council in an uncomfortable position. They are now caught between the federal party and their single-family-detached home owning constituents, many of whom are … loyal supporters of the federal Conservative party. And consider unrestricted zoning in their neighbourhoods “a violation of the social contract.” (Guy I was chatting with in the dog park, Spring 2023).

The Calgary kerfuffle speaks to the challenge Poilievre faces in broadening his coalition of support. Yes, there are younger urban/suburban voters willing to flock to the party that seems to have answers to the most pressing issue they face. But how patient are the older, mortgage-free party stalwarts who open their wallets for the party? My hunch is that they will grudgingly go along with Poilievre on this, if only to oust the much-loathed Trudeau. But I suspect that Poilievre will eventually discover that generational change is hard, even when you’re a winner.

In the meantime, Calgary urban progressives should brace themselves for the moment when they’ll need to feel grateful to the federal Conservatives for shaking up zoning in the city that loves to sprawl.