I’m not sure how much the political process deliberately create housing shortages. My experience in Western Canada (other than Vancouver) is that the politicians may be a little slow in new construction permits, but eventually the supply reaches the demand.

When I was in London in 1993, I found the prices of almost everything to be double what I was paying in Calgary. And so too were the wages for basic workers. London seemed to have adopted to ensure workers had a reasonable living. We were in Vancouver about five years ago. THe restaurant workers were not getting any kind of premium for living in an expensive city. Yet they stayed.