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The NDP’s “speculation tax” on real estate is really nothing of the sort when you consider who’s getting whacked with the new tax — and who isn’t.

Premier John Horgan promised during last year’s election to crack down on foreign property flippers who use the real-estate market like their own personal Monopoly game.

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The NDP’s solution: A two-per-cent annual tax on properties purchased by buyers who do not pay income tax in the province, with the money used to build affordable housing for people who actually live and work here.

But the tax unveiled in the February budget goes after owners of empty homes, including vacation properties owned by British Columbians who pay income tax here.

How is someone who owns a cabin on a lake suddenly deemed to be a “property speculator” in the eyes of the government?

Horgan himself said the government wouldn’t target such people.

“If you have a home in Vancouver and a home in Penticton that you visit in the summer or to ski in the winter, that would not fall in with the out-of-province speculation tax,” Horgan said.