Ottawa Housing & Land Meetup — Ottawa CLT, Henry George Foundation of Canada, & Make Housing Affordable
At our first Ottawa Housing Meetup on June 24, 2026, we tried something new.
Liam Wilkinson and Ken Yang of Common Wealth Canada introduced a modified version of Monopoly (a reference to its predecessor, Lizzie Magie's Landlord's Game) to show why the answer to housing starts with returning publicly-created land value to our communities and its citizens, rather than letting it fund tax-free windfalls for some players that bankrupt everyone else.
Imagine how different our economy would be today, how much more equitable and productive, if the most successful commercial board game of all time taught everyone about the dangers of letting land rents become privatized, just as Lizzie Magie had envisioned over 200 years ago.
After the Monopoly presentation, we heard remarks from Dr. Francis K. Peddle, President of the Henry George Foundation of Canada; Mike Bulthuis, Executive Director of the Ottawa Community Land Trust; and Brandon Bay, former Chair of Make Housing Affordable. You can find the slides for the presentation above.
At our first Ottawa Housing Meetup last week, we tried something new. We played a modified version of Monopoly (a reference to its predecessor, Landlord's Game) to show why the answer to housing starts with land - returning its value to communites, not funding tax-free windfalls for some players.
— Common Wealth Canada (@commonwealthcanada.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 10:18 PM
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Organizing Partners
Common Wealth Canada advances policy ideas that turn publicly created wealth into broad public benefit, including land value return and sovereign wealth funds. Its work focuses on how Canada can capture economic rents from land, natural resources, technology, and finance to build shared prosperity for current and future generations.
The Henry George Foundation of Canada promotes the ideas of economist Henry George, including land value taxation and the public capture of economic rent. Its work connects land, tax reform, and shared prosperity through the goals of a more just, green, and prosperous society.
The Ottawa Community Land Trust is a non-profit working to preserve and increase affordable housing in the Ottawa region. OCLT acquires rental properties, secures land for future housing, and partners with local groups to keep homes affordable for the long term.
Make Housing Affordable is a pro-housing advocacy group in Ottawa working to fix the city’s housing shortage and make life more affordable. Their “Six Big Moves” platform focuses on getting more homes built, fighting sprawl, and pushing policymakers toward practical housing solutions.
Further reading
One of our attendees, Community Wealth Candidates founder Colin Bruce Anthes penned an article for the Canadian Dimension entitled “In Canada’s housing policy circles, the land crisis remains unmentionable”. We strongly enourage you to give it a read.
We cannot solve the housing crisis without dealing directly with the land question.
Oh, the cat? Well, that's a reference to a cat illusion that has been associated with the role of land in our economy and the need to properly share in its rental value. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
