it looks like your typical Airbnb listing advertising a microloft in the heart of downtown Victoria but look further and the listing specifies that prospective renters must stay at least 90 days quote thanks to our bcnp government the ad also encourages people to vote for the BC conservatives in the fall provincial election it's a blatant jab at the NDP government's Crackdown on short-term rentals which bans most airbnbs that are not in the owner's primary residence anyone with a short rental that's not in their main home has to rent the unit for a minimum of 90 days the property Rights Association of BC a short-term rental Lobby group held online town halls with BC conservative leader John rustad and BC United leader Kevin Falcon rustad promises that if he becomes Premier he would scrap provincial short-term rental rules and leave them up to local governments uh they're the ones that do the business licenses they're the ones that do the zoning and I think quite frankly what the provincial government done has been an overstep it has significantly damaged tourism uh in many areas try to get a hotel now in places like even Vancouver and the rates have gone through the roof Paul Kershaw the founder of generation squeeze says the BC conservatives hands-off approach would do nothing to address Skyhigh house prices and record low vacancy rates they're being seduced by the idea that we're going to get some people voting for us because they're wanting to you know continue to use housing as a business strategy to commodified as an investment strategy that is just out of touch with the scale of the problem facing us BC United MLA Todd Stone says his party would keep some restrictions on short-term rentals but allow people to have one or two rentals outside of their primary residence he says the ndp's Airbnb rules have done nothing to address the housing shortage people were forced to take their short-term rentals um you know off the market and uh you know those short-term rentals are not all suddenly turning into long-term rentals as the NDP you know said they would magically would housing Minister Ravi Kalan says he's not worried about anti-np messaging on some Airbnb listings not a surprise given that both Airbnb and some of these investors are well-funded uh pretty powerful group uh and they're going to try to leverage that to maximize their profits Kon says the province won't back down on short-term rental rules even as it faces a lawsuit by a group of shortterm rental owners he insists the rules have moved hundreds of airbnbs back onto the long-term Market Katie do roza CBC News Victoria