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British Columbia's affordability crisis is hurtling toward catastrophe -- and our elected officials, with very few exceptions, are intoxicated by their own fantasies.

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About a year ago, I wrote about the bittersweet feeling of having to flee Vancouver for the (slightly) more affordable shores of Victoria.

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If you met a young man who couldn't afford rent in Vancouver so he purchased an old Chevy campervan, parked in a different part of the city every week to avoid parking tickets and tow charges, and had to beg for water so he could occasionally shower, I would expect you to react in horror that young people have been forced to respond to the housing crisis in such degrading and burdensome ways.

Affordability is becoming the new buzzword of the B.C. government. In the dispute with teachers, for example, the Minister of Education has repeatedly argued demands for lower class sizes and improved class composition, as well as fair wages, are unaffordable and unrealistic (see here). When parents and businesses make the case for more public funding for child care, fed up with the high fees and long wait lists, the official government line is that B.C. can't afford a $10-a-day program (see here).