Erin O'Toole is the face of Conservative campaign in week one

The early days of the 2021 Conservative campaign are so different, in so many ways, to both the Stephen Harper and Andrew Scheer-led campaigns of recent elections gone by.

It starts with the media availabilities. Gone are the days when the Conservative leader would only take a handful of questions. Gone are the days when follow-up questions were not allowed. Gone are the days when cutting programs and worrying about where the money comes from was a concern of the leader.

Erin O'Toole may not be doing many elbow bumps with Canadians or walking along one city street after another waving to voters, but he is happy to stand alone in front of the microphone and field question after question. Yes, Erin O'Toole is the face of the Conservative campaign in week one.

The GST holiday promise on Tuesday came with a $1.5 billion price tag. Today the Conservatives highlighted its affordable housing policy. The O'Toole commitment is eye-catching for Canadians hoping for help to get more housing. O'Toole said, "We will implement our plan to build one million homes in the next three years."

O'Toole made no mention of how this ambitious plan will be paid for. I reached out to the Conservatives to explain just how it will be achieved. One answer is that the Conservatives start by including the expected annual housing construction of about 250,000 units to continue. So now the Conservative promise is down to adding about 82,000 units a year over and above the ongoing, assumed, housing construction in Canada. So the Conservative plan really is to put up about 250,000 new units, not a million.

There's another small problem to solve before those additional units can be built. Building homes need construction workers. Putting up all those units in just three years needs a lot of people with building skills. In July, Statistics Canada reported that job vacancies in construction hit an all-time high in Canada. That labour shortage is impacting all construction, including hospitals, offices and schools, not just housing.

The Conservatives told me that additional training programs will be implemented by a Conservative government. One builder in Toronto pointed out to me that training programs already exist. Indeed, in June, the Ontario government announced four million dollars for training in that construction sector.

The Conservative housing proposal also says it will look to use available federal land. In some cases, that is vacant land or even existing office buildings. When I asked if that land would be sold to developers and at what cost, I was told it will be a "mix of selling and lower costs." As everyone knows, the devil is always in the details and the Conservative admitted, "The details are to be worked out."

The NDP rolled out its housing plan in Vancouver earlier this week. It's not much different from its 2019 housing plan. The core promise is still 500,000 units in 10 years. The NDP was quick to call me today to lay into the Conservative plan. The NDP pointed out the Conservative promise doesn't provide details on how it will achieve its goals. Well, yes, see above.

But I put the same questions to the NDP as the Conservatives. I was told someone will get back to me with the details of how an NDP government will get those promised units built. At the time of filing this, there was no callback.

Justin Trudeau, the Liberal leader, is going to start heading back east today, flying to Calgary and then on to Winnipeg. But he began in Victoria and talked about his plans to improve long-term care in Canada.

He was asked about his reaction to the Conservative housing plan. Trudeau didn't wade into specifics, but he conceded that housing is an important issue for Canadians." It is unacceptable. Far too many people in this country can't afford their homes, particularly young people wanting to get their start."

I reached out to the Liberals for more on its housing file during the past six years. The Liberal email response points me to the party's 2017 National Housing Strategy and trumpets the funding commitments to build 63,300 units of affordable housing and repair 126,000 units of existing community housing. There is also a promise of 125,000 affordable homes, but there is no timetable for delivering that four-year-old commitment.

Trudeau said today he is looking forward to presenting his party's housing plan later in the campaign.

Affordable housing is something many Canadians are concerned about. Solving the housing crisis will not be easy and voters should focus on just how vague this week's proposals are.