Thomas Campaign Unveils Housing Plan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thomas Campaign Unveils Housing Plan for Beaches-East York, Anchored in His Own 17 Years as a Renter in the Riding

Candidate points to zero riding investment under Ottawa's newest housing program, despite the outgoing MP having run the federal housing file himself

TORONTO, August 6th, 2026 - Cameron Thomas, Canadian Future Party (CFP) candidate for Beaches-East York, today released the first plank of his campaign platform: a housing plan built around ensuring Ottawa's federal housing investment actually reaches Beaches-East York, ensuring the character of the riding and paired with expanded and faster support to get non-profit and co-op housing built. Housing is a primary focus of Thomas's platform rollout, followed in the coming weeks by focus on health care, tax reform, public safety, and his closing commitment to free votes.

"I've spent seventeen years in the same submarket rental unit in this riding. Affordable housing isn't an abstraction to me, it's my address," said Thomas. "We are building a Future Canada, one riding, one member, one honest conversation at a time, and in Beaches-East York that conversation starts with the roof over your head."

Thomas points to the affordability strain already visible close to home. In Beaches-East York, nearly two in five renter households, 38.6 percent, spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, according to City of Toronto ward-level census data. The riding's average rent sits at $1,370 a month, and nearly 13,000 residents live below the low-income threshold. Only 11.7 percent of households in the riding are headed by someone between the ages of 25 and 34, well below the citywide average of 17.4 percent, a sign that young adults are having a harder time establishing an independent household here than elsewhere in Toronto. (Figures reflect City of Toronto Ward 19, which closely aligns with, though is not identical to, the federal riding boundary.)

That local pressure reflects a broader trend. Nationally, 35.1 percent of Canadians aged 20 to 34 were living with at least one parent as of the 2021 census, according to Statistics Canada. In the Toronto census metropolitan area, which includes Beaches-East York, that figure was 46.6 percent, among the highest of any major city in the country.

The gap between that pressure and federal delivery is stark. On August 5, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood with Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to announce a $2.7 billion federal-city partnership covering 18 housing projects and more than 5,600 rental homes across Toronto, nearly 2,000 of them affordable or deeply affordable, built through Build Canada Homes, the federal government's newest and now permanent housing agency. Carney said the projects would land in the neighbourhoods hit hardest by rising rent and evictions. Not one of those 18 projects is located in Beaches-East York. The riding's own outgoing MP, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, served as federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities from December 2024 to May 2025, overseeing this file himself before leaving cabinet. Even Erskine-Smith has been candid about the shortfall: reviewing last year's federal budget on his Substack, he wrote that its housing measures "falls short of the specific promises" made in his own party's platform.

"Our own MP ran the federal housing department, and this riding still got nothing out of it," said Thomas. "That's not a partisan talking point, that's what happened. People here deserve a member of Parliament who makes sure Beaches-East York isn't an afterthought."

Thomas's housing plan draws on the Canadian Future Party's national platform and applies it to Beaches-East York's specific pressures:

Make sure Build Canada Homes reaches every riding, not just the ones already in the pipeline. Build Canada Homes is now a permanent federal Crown corporation with the strongest tool in Ottawa's housing kit, the ability to build directly on federal and city land without waiting on municipal approval. But Canada's own Parliamentary Budget Officer projects federal housing spending will fall by more than half over the next four years, from $9.8 billion in 2025-26 to $4.3 billion in 2028-29, as older programs expire.Thomas will push for Beaches-East York to get a seat at the table for federal and city-owned land projects, and for Parliament to protect Build Canada Homes' funding rather than let it shrink on schedule.

Expand and speed up funding for non-profit and co-op housing, including buying up existing buildings before investors do. The Affordable Housing Fund, which finances non-profit, co-operative, and low-income housing through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, is now fully committed and closed to new applications, even as need keeps growing. Thomas backs renewed direct investment through CMHC, including faster access to publicly owned land for non-profit and co-op providers, with covenants restricting resale to keep that housing affordable for the long term. He also wants Ottawa to help fund Toronto's Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition program, which lets non-profits buy existing rental buildings when they come up for sale and convert them to permanently affordable housing rather than losing them to investors. The City pioneered this approach and has already secured hundreds of affordable homes through it, but Mayor Olivia Chow has said the program needs partnership from other orders of government to scale up. Thomas agrees, and will push Ottawa to help fund it.

Thomas's platform reflects the Canadian Future Party's broader housing plan, which calls for restoring federal leadership in housing, prioritizing climate-ready and rapid-build construction, and expanding the construction workforce through expanding and prioritizing the current immigration pathways for skilled trades.

The Beaches-East York by-election will be held on August 31, 2026. Further campaign details can be found at https://www.thecanadianfutureparty.ca/who-we-are/candidates and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @camforbey

About Cameron Thomas

Cameron Thomas is the Canadian Future Party candidate for Beaches-East York. A seventeen-year resident of the riding, he is a communications strategist with more than two decades of experience advising executives and political leaders and spent six years on the board of Margaret's Housing and Community Services, a Toronto organization supporting women experiencing homelessness. He currently serves as Chief of Staff and Press Secretary for the Canadian Future Party. His campaign was the first to be confirmed on the Beaches-East York by-election ballot.

About the Canadian Future Party

Founded in 2024 under the leadership of former New Brunswick cabinet minister Dominic Cardy, the Canadian Future Party is committed to evidence-based policy, democratic reform, and restoring honesty and accountability to Canadian politics: Not Left. Not Right. Forward.

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