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Economics says that if renting is less common, it’s because there are fewer would-be tenants or landlords or both.

In fact, incomes in Toronto have risen a lot since 1990, so more people may have the desire and ability to buy (especially if many of them do believe they have to get in before it’s too late).

But given the rules and regulations landlords have to comply with these days and the extended rights that have been given tenants by various regulatory bodies, including human rights commissions, who in his right mind would aspire to be a landlord? Like it or not, one way or another, if governments want there to be more landlords, they will have to go easier on them.

If current trends persist (which of course they almost never do) and if renting does become a historical curiosity, what then happens to Toronto’s poor people? Will anyone outside the one per cent be able to live in Toronto — including all those middle-class Canadians who are so important to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals?

To begin with, in 2011, according to the CMHC website, there were almost two million housing units in Toronto, and many more than two million people lived in them. Not all those people are super-rich. So things aren’t as hopeless as they’re often made to sound.

But beyond that, it’s true: Toronto will not magically find new land. So if incomes do continue to grow and if more and more people do persist in wanting to move to Toronto — whether from other countries or from other parts of this country — and if Toronto doesn’t become friendlier to developers who want to increase the number of housing units, whether to sell or to rent, then, sure, prices will rise over the long haul and poor people will get squeezed out.

But where does it say in the Charter of Rights that every Canadian has the constitutional right to live on the most desirable real estate in the country?