In what promises to be a fiercely fought federal election, a bipartisan consensus has emerged on at least one top political issue: there is a “housing crisis” in Canada.
The Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic Party leaders have all used those words to describe the mind-boggling home prices and dearth of quality rental options that have come to characterize the country’s real estate. The Green Party has similarly called for affordable housing for all Canadians.
Breakneck price appreciation, once a problem limited largely to areas around Vancouver and Toronto, has become a national emergency during the pandemic, with Canada’s average home price rising by more than 30 per cent between July 2019 and July 2021, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association.
At the same time, COVID-19 has also brought renewed attention to the issue of renting. On the one hand, eviction threats during provincial stay-at-home orders have highlighted the plight of low-income renters, many of whom were disproportionately affected by job losses in the earlier phases of the pandemic. On the other hand, the quality and affordability of rental options is increasingly becoming a middle-class issue as well, as a growing number of prospective homebuyers feel permanently locked out of homeownership.
The front-runners are all going big with promises to tackle the crisis. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau unveiled a pledge on Tuesday to build or renovate 1.4 million homes in four years. Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has promised one million new houses in three years, while NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh wants to build 500,000 affordable homes in 10 years. And that’s just a taste of the many policy proposals each party has put forth on housing so far.
But how did Canada’s crippling housing woes come to be in the first place?
While there is no single or simple explanation, here’s a look at some of the main factors experts point to when explaining the country’s housing crisis.
2:16 NDP vows to make housing more affordable in Canada
NDP vows to make housing more affordable in Canada
Low mortgage rates
Economists have long pointed to low interest rates as an important factor behind Canada’s home-price boom.
1:09 Canada election: Liberals introduce 3-part housing plan
Canada election: Liberals introduce 3-part housing plan
Low interest rates have allowed Canadians to take on ever-larger mortgages and thus afford pricier homes. The amount of mortgage debt Canadians collectively owe stood at 1.7 trillion in September 2020, according to the latest seasonally adjusted data from the Bank of Canada. That’s up from around $1 trillion in mortgage debt a decade ago.
While mortgage rates were already low before the pandemic, they dropped even further after the onset of the health emergency, as the Bank of Canada used a variety of tools to lower borrowing costs and stimulate economic activity to soften the impact of COVID-19.
Among other measures, Canada’s central bank has left its key interest rate at a historic low of 0.25 per cent since March 2020. Movements in the Bank of Canada’s trend-setting interest rate directly impact variable-rate mortgages.
But changes in the central bank’s rate can also affect the interest on new fixed-rate mortgages, especially if there’s a widespread expectation that the changes will be long-lasting.
The Bank of Canada has repeatedly flagged high levels of household debt amid the housing craze as a concern. But it does not have a mandate to limit how much Canadians borrow or to keep housing affordable. Instead, the central bank influences interest rates with the goal of keeping inflation low and stable, an objective it pursues with considerable independence from the government.
With economic activity now picking up steam and inflation on the rise, several analysts believe the Bank of Canada will start raising its key interest rate sometime in the second half of 2022.
Higher interest rates are widely expected to put a damper on the housing market, CIBC economist Benjamin Tal has previously told Global News.
“Even a small increase in interest rates would be sufficient to slow down the market,” Tal said.
1:02 Canada election: Conservatives pledge to build 1 million affordable homes in 3 years if elected
Canada election: Conservatives pledge to build 1 million affordable homes in 3 years if elected
Canada isn’t building enough homes
Many analysts and industry insiders also point to another problem to explain skyrocketing home prices: there aren’t enough homes for everyone who wants to own or rent one.
Canada’s housing supply hasn’t kept pace with population growth, several experts say.
While national borders have been closed to most immigrants since March 2020 to limit the spread of COVID-19, between 2016 and 2019, Canada welcomed nearly one million new permanent residents, data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) show. And between 2017 and 2018, net immigration accounted for 80 per cent of the country’s population growth, according to IRCC.
That increase likely helped fuel housing demand during the pandemic, Sri Thanabalasingam, senior economist at TD Bank Group, previously told Global News. Lower mortgage rates and a sudden desire for more living space amid the pandemic restrictions triggered what Thanabalasingam calls a “pull-forward” of housing demand, prompting many prospective homebuyers to pull the trigger on a purchase.
Soaring numbers of international student enrolment are also feeding into the demand for housing. In 2019 alone, Canada issued more than 402,000 new study permits, according to IRCC.
And a significant number of those students ends up settling here for the long-term, thanks to Canada’s easy path to permanent residency, economist Mike Moffatt has told Global News.
Southern Ontario is a striking example of the housing shortage. The population of the Greater Golden Horseshoe region, which stretches around Toronto and the western end of Lake Ontario, is estimated to have grown by 780,000 people in the five-year period between the second half of 2016 and the first half of 2021, according to an analysis by Hemson Consulting. That represents an increase of more than 50 per cent compared to the 510,000 people the area added in the previous five-year period, the data shows.
But in the same five-year span between 2016 and 2021, the region likely added only around 270,000 new homes, a modest increase from around 214,000 homes added in the previous five years, estimates Russell Mathew, partner at Hemson Consulting, which crunches the numbers for Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
2:04 Priced out: Will the Canadian housing market crash? Why home prices may stay hot
Priced out: Will the Canadian housing market crash? Why home prices may stay hot – Jun 5, 2021
And when it comes to housing, generations matter, too. Housing demand is linked not just to the number of people who need a roof over their heads but also to the number of those reaching the prime family-formation and home-buying stage.
The largest number of millennials in Canada is turning 30 in 2021, Mathew notes.
“So what are they doing as they turn 30? Well, this is where they’re starting to pair up, thinking of having kids and, you know, maybe buying a house in the suburbs,” he says.
Canada’s rental supply has also been suffering from chronic shortages. The national rental vacancy rate in 2020 was a mere 3.2 per cent and as low as two per cent in 2019, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Some blame the rental shortage on rent control policies that, they say, make it less profitable for corporations to build new rentals and discourage landlords from spending on repairs and upgrades.
Others, though, link the dearth of affordable rental options to regulations that favour condos, rather than purpose-built rentals, in areas designed for high-density development.
For the first couple of decades after the Second World War, all urban areas designated for the construction of high-density housing tended to be, by default, reserved for rental units, David Hulchanski, professor of housing and community development at the University of Toronto, has previously told Global News.
But with provincial regulations introducing the condominium form of homeownership in the early 1970s, condos became competition for purpose rental housing in those same high-density areas, Hulchanski said. And, over time, condos edged out rentals.
Also, whether young Canadians are buying or renting, another aspect of the housing shortage is the scarcity of housing options fit for families. Some argue that Canada is not only not building enough homes but not building enough of the right kind of homes.
This is the so-called “missing middle” issue. Canada’s urban development, some housing experts say, is often split between large and expensive detached homes or tiny apartments in high-density units with few options for families with middling incomes.
It doesn’t help that the baby boomer generation seems increasingly inclined to age in place instead of downsizing, which would free up larger homes for growing families.
4:36 Priced Out: A look at why the hot housing market is out of reach for young Canadians
Priced Out: A look at why the hot housing market is out of reach for young Canadians – May 28, 2021
Using homes as an investment
Another hot topic when it comes to housing is the issue of using residential real estate as an investment rather than a place to live.
The idea, of course, isn’t new. Owning and renting a second property, for example, has long been a way for Canadians to generate income and grow their money. But a number of housing market watchers say aspects of real estate investing have become problematic.
Soaring home appreciation makes housing an attractive place to put money, especially when low interest rates mean there are few options for investors to grow their capital without taking on considerable risk.
Investors accounted for 20 per cent of property purchases in Canada in early 2021 compared to just under 22 per cent of purchases in early 2018 and 18 per cent of purchases in early 2015, according to estimates from the Bank of Canada.
One worry is that investors can help feed the collective psychological frenzy that often sets in when home prices start to rise rapidly, pushing home values even further.
Another concern is about investors leaving homes empty or turning them into short-term rentals, which reduces the supply of housing available for Canadians to live in.
2:17 Priced out: Renters facing challenges during a red-hot pandemic housing market
Priced out: Renters facing challenges during a red-hot pandemic housing market – May 29, 2021
For example, when Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, analyzed 2016 census data, he found that Metro Vancouver had more than 65,000 homes that were either lying empty or occupied for only a short period of the year, more than double the number of empty homes in 2001.
Vancouver’s empty-homes tax has since prompted some homeowners to rent out their properties, but around five per cent of the city’s homes are still vacant, Yan says.
It’s also unclear how many of the properties that have joined the city’s rental stock are being made available to long-term renters rather than added to the pool of homes for short-term rentals, he adds.
Online platforms like Airbnb have also exacerbated the housing shortage in some of Canada’s hottest markets, some housing analysts say. A 2019 study by McGill University researchers, for example, estimated that Airbnb had reduced Canada’s long-term rental stock by 31,000 homes, with nearly half of active listings located in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Several jurisdictions have since tightened regulations on short-term rentals.
But some say an oversized investor presence in the housing market can be a concern even when investors rent out their properties for the long-term.
One source of concern is the growing presence of corporate investors like private equity firms, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and financial institutions in Canada’s multi-family apartment rental sector.
Martine August, a professor at the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo, previously told Global News that large corporate landlords have a track record of “systematically” pursuing rent increases in order to extract profit from their real estate investments.
And while small landlords are also usually motivated by financial gain, large corporations are more effective at finding ways to increase rents, according to August.
“They typically have a very sophisticated way to try to extract more value,” August says.
“(They) will invest in all sorts of things in those buildings that will allow them to extract more value from it — the types of building renovations that allow them to charge more rents, (or) above-guideline increases.”
In general, the overarching concern is that the secondary rental market — homes built for ownership but then made available for rent — comes with less security of tenure and higher rents than the purpose-built rental market, says Yan.
“Part of (the) challenge is really understanding how the secondary rental market plays a role in the rental system,” he says.
5:00 Your Money: What to expect as bidding wars heat up the housing rental market
Your Money: What to expect as bidding wars heat up the housing rental market – Aug 5, 2021
Using homes to launder dirty money
Yet another factor exacerbating Canada’s housing crisis is money laundering, some analyses suggest.
The Expert Panel on Money Laundering in B.C. Real Estate, for example, estimated that money laundering makes home prices in the province between 3.7 per cent and 7.5 per cent higher than they would otherwise be.
But money laundering in real estate has also emerged as a serious concern in Toronto, Montreal and other parts of the country.
Real estate lends itself well to money laundering, says James Cohen, executive director of Transparency International Canada. For one, real estate purchases are a way to launder large sums of dirty money. And when real estate goes up in value, it becomes an even better deal for criminals, Cohen adds.
“You can enjoy that money for a while by actually visiting that (home) and then you can see the property price go up, sell it, and now you’ve got legitimate cash,” he says.
Organized crime across the world uses real estate to launder money, but Canada’s pristine international reputation and lax anti-money laundering regime have made it an especially attractive destination for crooks looking for a place to park their funds, Cohen says.
“Opaque ownership” is the number one issue facilitating money laundering in Canada’s real estate, according to Transparency International. Using shell companies, trusts or “straw men” to hold title to property is an easy way for criminals to hide ownership from law enforcement and other authorities.
3:17 Evidentiary phase of Cullen Commission wraps
Evidentiary phase of Cullen Commission wraps – May 17, 2021
While financial institutions have an obligation to verify who they’re really doing business with, it wasn’t until June of this year that Canada introduced similar requirements to others including real estate agents, brokers and developers.
Loose reporting requirements for the real estate industry made it easy for criminals to use all-cash transactions to evade scrutiny, Cohen says.
But even with stricter rules in place, it can often be difficult for private-sector entities to assess who really owns what, he adds.
When it comes to housing, Transparency International and other anti-money-laundering advocates have long called for federal, provincial, and territorial governments to require disclosure of beneficial owners as a prerequisite for any property or land transfer and create a pan-Canadian, publicly available beneficial ownership registry.
In 2019, British Columbia created a publicly searchable registry of information about beneficial ownership of land in the province. Quebec, meanwhile, now requires beneficial ownership to be reported in its existing corporate registry.
In its 2021 federal budget, the Liberal government announced $2.1 million to support the creation of a public corporate beneficial ownership registry by 2025.
Still, even with a centralized, comprehensive registry in place, Canada will need to devote more staff, money and training to detect suspicious transactions and hold those responsible accountable, Cohen says.
“Money laundering and financial crime is a very technical area that takes years of experience to be able to enforce,” he says.
It’s little wonder that the ongoing work of B.C.’s Cullen Commission, which was established to determine how to tackle money laundering in the province, earned several mentions on the federal campaign trail.
Ottawa should listen carefully to the Commission’s final recommendations, which are expected later this year, Cohen says.
“You can’t just address money laundering province by province. It’s a national issue.”
Mary Wilson was rapidly deteriorating with Alzheimer’s when she received a medically assisted death in 2017.
The Alberta woman was still cognitively aware and could carry complex conversations, but those chats might take an hour and a half instead of the usual 15 minutes, says her son, Ken Campbell.
She had also begun retreating from the world as the disease progressed: she put coffee cups in bathroom cabinets and spoons under pillows; she needed help getting dressed and had a loss of bladder control.
Wilson, an intellectual with three post-secondary degrees, stopped reading and started watching Disney musicals on repeat.
“Talking to my mom was like watching a beginner driver parallel park,” Campbell says of her final days.
Wilson hosted an intimate house party with family and friends before receiving MAID.
At the party she would smile and lean forward as if preparing to speak, but then lose her train of thought as everyone quieted to listen, saying only, “Nevermind,” Campbell says.
Her window for eligibility to receive MAID appeared to be closing – once a person with an untreatable condition loses the mental capacity to consent, it’s illegal to provide them an assisted death.
“Advanced requests were not available, and that was a big frustration for my mother,” says Campbell.
That is no longer the case in Quebec, where a person with a serious and incurable illness like Alzheimer’s can request MAID, months or years before their condition leaves them unable to consent. The move has received praise from patients and advocates who believe people with Alzheimer’s should get to decide if they want to endure the full extent of their decline. But it’s also generated confusion and criticism among some in the medical community who raise moral and legal questions.
In Wilson’s case, she was able to turn to her doctor and say “I’m ready,” recalls Campbell.
But he says that his mother would have wanted to ask for MAID in advance.
Wilson was diagnosed with dementia in 2012 and began a rapid decline in 2017. Her doctors had time to observe the speed and signs of her descent.
The acceleration of an Alzheimer’s patient’s illness – and their window of eligibility – largely varies case-by-case, says Dr. Konia Trouton, president of the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers.
Neurological conditions accounted for 12.6 per cent of people who received MAID in 2022. Out of those cases, which include Parkinson’s disease and ALS, dementia made up nine per cent, representing 150 people, Statistics Canada data shows.
They have to be in advanced decline, but still able to explain their diagnosis and give consent, says Trouton, who has been providing MAID in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario since 2016.
Sandra Demontigny, who lives in Lévis, Que., applauds her province for fighting to advance MAID in Canada. She has started drafting personal criteria that would mean she’s ready for the procedure.
Patients making an advanced request must detail the circumstances in which they’d want MAID, such as if they lose control of their bowel, or forget their children’s names.
Demontigny, 45, knew she wanted to apply for MAID when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 39.
Demontigny saw the distress in her father’s eyes as he suffered from Alzheimer’s – the same illness his mother had – and it was like he was saying “save me,” she says. He could no longer eat or drink at the end of his life. He lay on the floor like a baby learning to walk, she recalls.
She decided that if she was diagnosed, she would seek a medically assisted death.
“I cannot imagine myself, and my children seeing me like that,” Demontigny says, pausing as tears muffle her words.
More than a decade after her father died, signs of her own illness appeared.
Demontigny says she’s already losing her memory, and sometimes asks the same question repeatedly. “I’m not the same person as before,” she says.
The federal government will launch consultations later this month about expanding advanced requests for medical assistance in dying.
Dr. Catherine Ferrier, who has spent four decades diagnosing and treating patients with neurocognitive disorders in Montreal, is firmly opposed to advance requests saying, “I find it barbaric.”
She posits the dilemma of a dementia patient with advanced consent who pulls their arm away when the doctor tries to insert the needle.
“You’re going to have to either hold them down or sedate them in order to do that,” Ferrier says.
If a patient’s refusal is a manifestation of their illness, the MAID practitioner can proceed, she says, but “that leaves a huge leeway for the subjectivity of the doctor.”
“We talk about ageism and we talk about ableism, discrimination against people with disabilities. To me, this displays all of that. Somebody who’s not actively contributing to society anymore, somehow it’s OK to just lower your standards for consent and remove that person from the population,” says Ferrier.
But Trouton says this is why the details of a person’s request are so important: “They’re going to have to outline what suffering will look like and how that can be objectively identified, like five or 10 years later.”
“That does mean that when a patient refuses, like a person with dementia who’s happy, it’s going to be hard for us to indicate, what does a refusal look like,” says Trouton.
The Quebec government website states that health and social services professionals, such as nurses and social workers, are expected to answer a patient’s MAID-related questions and help them find a provider. A doctor or specialized nurse practitioner would prepare the advanced request with the patient and record it with the provincial registry.
Helping patients write advanced requests will be an intensive process given the level of detail required. Trouton says she worries that there won’t be enough physicians and nurses trained to meet the expected demand.
“It’ll be impossible,” Trouton says. “That’s what I’m quite worried about.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
OTTAWA – Canada is still not on track to meet its commitments under the Paris climate agreement, federal Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco said in a new report on Thursday.
Ottawa has promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to be 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, but so far they have only fallen seven per cent below 2005 levels.
In a news conference after the reports were tabled in Parliament, DeMarco said it is still possible to meet those targets but the “task is much harder because there’s only six years left to do essentially 20 or 30 years’ worth of reductions.”
“It’s not time to give up,” he said.
While progress is “painfully slow” on some of the government’s policies, DeMarco said, “that’s not a reason to just throw up our hands and say we won’t make it.”
“We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to make as great an effort as possible to meet these global challenges.”
The report looked at 20 of the 149 measures from the government’s 2030 Emission Reductions Plan progress report, and found they were being implemented too slowly to fulfil their intended goal.
Only nine of those were on track and another nine were facing challenges.
The other two had significant barriers like delays in meeting milestones, including the initiative to get Indigenous communities off diesel fuel, and the oil and gas emissions cap. The government only published the cap’s draft regulations on Monday, after promising the measure in the 2021 election.
“Overall, the federal government had advanced a variety of mitigation measures to support progress towards a net-zero transition but had still not made sufficient progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet its 2030 target,” the report reads.
The report also zeroed in on whether Environment and Climate Change Canada has reported on its progress with enough transparency. In 2021, Parliament passed a law requiring the department to set emission targets and to publish emissions reduction plans and progress reports.
That law requires the department to include in its progress report what additional measures could be taken if Canada is not on track to meet its 2030 targets. As such, DeMarco said he expected more measures to be included in last year’s progress report since Canada clearly knew it wasn’t doing enough to meet the target.
Of the 32 additional measures the department published — in addition to the 149 existing ones — DeMarco found only seven were new measures. Three of them enhanced existing measures, and the other 22 were ones the department had already reported.
That included continuing to develop the Canada Green Buildings Strategy, which was already in the original plan.
DeMarco found the government has made strides in consulting with the provinces, territories and Indigenous Peoples, and that the department met its legislative reporting requirements. However he was critical of the government’s transparency with regards to its modelling data — concerns which he also raised in his report last year.
“Although the department made marginal transparency improvements on modelling assumptions for federal measures in the emissions projection report, it still provided insufficient details,” DeMarco’s latest report read, noting the department only provided details for one-third of the measures it included in its modelling.
“This issue of the lack of transparency in the modelling continues to be an ongoing concern, which can undermine the trust and credibility in the reported progress,” the report read.
Speaking to reporters outside the House of Commons on Thursday, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said the government could do better on transparency, and reiterated the work already done to bring emissions down.
“I agree with (DeMarco). We need to continue moving forward to implement measures to reach our 2030 target,” Guilbeault said.
“I should point out it’s the first time in Canada’s history emissions are going down because of measures that the government is taking.”
Guilbeault said final regulations for clean electricity standards will be released in the coming weeks.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars broadcasts could end next week as he faces a court-ordered auction of his company’s assets to help pay the more than $1 billion defamation judgment he owes families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Or maybe not.
Both opponents and supporters of the bombastic internet show and radio host have expressed interest in bidding on the Infowars properties he has built over the past 25 years. They include Roger Stone, an ally of Jones and Donald Trump, and anti-Jones progressive media groups. If Jones supporters buy the assets, he could end up staying on Infowars.
Up for sale are everything from Jones’ studio desk to Infowars’ name, video archive, social media accounts and product trademarks. Buyers can even purchase an armored truck and video cameras. For now, Jones’ personal social media, including his account on X, formerly known as Twitter, with 3 million followers, are not up for sale, but court proceedings on whether they should be auctioned are pending.
The auctions resulted from Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after the Sandy Hook families were awarded nearly $1.5 billion in damages in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas over his claims that the school shooting was a hoax. Many of Jones’ personal assets also are being liquidated to help pay the judgment.
The deadline to submit bids and nondisclosure agreements on the Infowars assets is Friday afternoon. After the bids are reviewed, prospective buyers deemed qualified will be invited to a live auction that could see multiple bidding rounds next Wednesday. Any items not sold will be put up at another auction on Dec. 10.
Jones has expressed confidence that supporters — whom he did not name — will buy the assets of Infowars and its parent company, Free Speech Systems, allowing him to continue using its platforms. He also appears to be preparing for losing the brand because he has set up new websites and social media accounts and has been directing his audience to them.
“There’s a lot of buyers, people that are patriots that want it and will come in,” Jones said on his show in August. “If not … we’ll work with somebody else, fire something up. And it’ll be a little bit of a hiccup for the crew, and things. But that will just make us bigger.”
Email messages to Infowars and Jones’ bankruptcy lawyer were not returned.
It’s not clear how much money the auctions might bring in. In court documents, Free Speech Systems listed the total value of its properties and holdings at $18 million. Proceeds from the sales will go to creditors including the Sandy Hook families, who have not yet received any money from Jones and his company.
Confidentiality agreements and sealed bids generally are used in auctions to maximize bid amounts while preventing bidders from talking to each other and driving down the offers. The trustee in Jones’ bankruptcy case said in court documents that the procedures for the Infowars auction were designed to attract the highest possible bids.
Christopher Mattei, a Connecticut lawyer representing the Sandy Hook families, called the auctions an important milestone in their yearslong fight to hold Jones accountable. He also said the families will be seeking a portion of all Jones’ future income.
“From the beginning, the Connecticut families have sought to hold Jones fully accountable for his lies and to protect other families from him,” Mattei said. “Stripping Jones of the corrupt business he used to attack the families while poisoning the minds of his listeners is an important measure of justice.”
The families sued Jones and his company for defamation and emotional distress for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control.
Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ hoax conspiracies and threats by his followers.
Jones, who has since acknowledged that the shooting did happen, is appealing the judgments.
Jones has made millions of dollars from his internet and radio shows, primarily through sales of nutritional supplements, survival gear, clothing and other merchandise.
Stone, the Jones and Trump ally and a conservative commentator, said on his X account and on Jones’ show that he would like to put together a group of investors to buy Infowars. He did not return email and social media messages on Thursday.
“I understand the importance of Infowars as a beacon of the truth, as a beacon of truthful information. And therefore, I would like to do whatever I possibly can to ensure, if possible, that Infowars survives,” Stone said on Jones’ show in September.
People on social media also have urged billionaire Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and X, to buy Infowars, an idea Jones has backed but Musk has not publicly responded to.
On the other side, Jones’ detractors have shown interest in buying Infowars, kicking Jones out and turning it into something else, such as a news site that debunks conspiracy theories or even a parody site. They include officials at two progressive media sites, The Barbed Wire and Media Matters for America.
An opinion piece by The Barbed Wire in September by publisher Jeff Rotkoff had a headline that read, “Let’s Buy Infowars. Alex Jones used these exact materials to exploit his viewers, peddle conspiracy theories, and damage the lives of grieving parents. We want revenge.”
Rotkoff urged readers to donate money to help put in bids, but he said Thursday that The Barbed Wire, based in Jones’ home state of Texas, was now unlikely to make any offers.
“But we have talked to a number of similarly ideologically aligned bidders and we are certain we will be outbid,” Rotkoff said in an email. “We’re thrilled that there appear to be multiple well-resourced bidders who share our interest in undoing much of the damage to our country done by Alex Jones. We’ll be rooting for those folks to be successful.”
He declined to say who the other potential bidders were.
Who exactly has submitted bids so far has not been disclosed. Jeff Tanenbaum, president of ThreeSixty Asset Advisors, which is helping to run the auction along with Tranzon Asset Advisors, would only say there have been a large number of inquiries.
If detractors buy up Infowars’ properties and Jones gets the boot, he should be able to build new platforms fairly quickly, said Melissa Zimdars, an associate professor of communication and media at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.
“As long as there is an audience hungry for his content — and there is — he’ll be able to utilize X and various fringe social media platforms,” she said in an email.
