Here's the government info: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/property-taxes/spec...

Essentially the tax targets secondary home ownership in certain non-tourism related hot housing markets of the province. A British Columbian that has a cabin in the woods somewhere is not terribly likely to be impacted.

There has been criticism from people saying "but I'm not 'speculating' I have a second home in Vancouver because (whatever reason)", but the tax seems generally popular so far. When so many don't own a single home, and with homelessness such a significant issue in Vancouver, I don't think there's much empathy for people upset that they'll be taxed on their second home.

London has a second home tax, https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/31/stamp-duty-sec... and a luxury home tax https://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/04/luxury-homes-tax.html but they also had to add rules for proving money was not laundered to buy things earlier this year for the UK https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-06-... though it sounds like a workaround is to use shell companies in different countries to buy property.