Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre apologizes after calling Niagara woman's home a 'shack'

A Niagara woman was left feeling embarrassed after the leader of the Conservative party put her rental home under the spotlight, referring to it as a “shack.”

Pierre Poilievre, who apologized the day after a report on his comments about the woman's home aired on CHCH, was in Niagara Falls this week and held a press conference in which he commented on Canada’s housing market. In an effort to illustrate his point on how much housing prices have climbed under the Liberal government, he shared the address of a one-and-a-half storey house that’s been on the market for some time.

“It costs $550,000 Canadian for a tiny little shack,” Poilievre said at the news conference.

He even gave out the address for the home and urged people to look into it.

In a statement to Yahoo Canada, Poilievre said: "I called Ms. Letourneau to apologize for my choice of words. Her home is in many ways not a lot different than the one I grew up in. My point was that every waitress, welder, barber, and factory worker should be able to afford a home, which is not the case in Canada today."

But Asha Letourneau, who is the current renter of the property, took issue with the snide remark from the political leader.

In an interview with CHCH, the restaurant server said she doesn’t know why the house had been on the market for so long, but wasn’t happy to hear it referenced as something it’s not.

“He called it a shack. A shack. That was a little embarrassing also because it’s not," Letourneau told the outlet. “I found it a little bit embarrassing especially when I seen it on social media ..."

Poilievre was attempting to make a point that bigger houses across the river, in Buffalo, N.Y., were going for much lower prices.

“On the American side, 15 minutes away, you can get a big beautiful multi-level with a garage and a big lot for $217,000 Canadian” he told reporters. “Why is it that you pay twice as much for a quarter of the home on the Canadian side of the border?”

“Rent has doubled, mortgage payments have doubled, needed down payments have all doubled. It’s double trouble with Trudeau on housing,” he said, adding that he would plan to build more affordable housing were he elected prime minister.

On social media, many didn’t understand the problem the Tory leader had with the size of the house, with some calling his comment “out of touch.”

The Conservative Party has not responded to Yahoo News Canada’s request for comment.