When America hits the wall, we can't be far behind

(September 30) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They sound like a pair of villains on an episode of Dukes of Hazzard. Roscoe P. Coltrane would have had them behind bars in about 45 minutes.

Maybe he should have. Fannie and Freddie have become symbolic of the sub-prime mortgage crisis that cost thousands of Americans their homes. It is fitting that George Bush’s term of office is ending in a disaster of his own making.

He drained the treasury, pumping all its money into Iraqi oil wells - a foolhardy adventure from the start. When it all began six and a half years ago, many people predicted this Gulf war would ruin the American economy. No one thought it would also bring down the world financial order.

It would be fun to tell George that he made his own bed and now must lie in it. The trouble is that our own Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has been anxious to try out the same mattress that Bush found so comfortable.

Both countries are going into elections at about the same time. Both have conservative ideologues in power. Both are spending a lot of money on controversial wars. The Americans are hitting the economic wall now. We can’t be far behind.

Time might be on our side. There is a chance we will get some regime change up here before crisis turns into disaster. Election results might be close in the land below the border, but odds are they will turn to Barack Obama as their President. If we can believe the opinion polls, Canadians will do just the opposite. Stephen Harper appears to be holding his lead and heading for another minority government. The Liberal campaign is hitting the panic buttons.

A leader of a Canadian federal political party must be able to communicate clearly and effectively in both official languages. Stephen Harper can do it. Jack Layton can do it. Stéphane Dion can not. He makes Jean Chrétien appear fluently bilingual.

If Harper is looking good to a lot of Canadians, it is only because Dion is looking so bad. We still haven’t managed to free ourselves of the tired old notion that the country can only be run by Conservatives or Liberals.

Maybe it used to be true, but not any more.

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It’s a good thing I enjoy my job. I might be working at it a few years longer than I had planned. It all depends on how well my RRSPs survive Fannie Mae’s shenanigans.

The curious thing is that a lot of the American melt down resulted from financial institutions lending money they didn’t have so that people could buy homes they can’t afford.

There is a much more effective way to support the right of families to live in decent, affordable homes. It’s called co-operative housing. There are six in Guelph.

Co-ops are mixed income communities owned and operated by the members who live in them. The first two housing co-ops in Guelph were started under a federal housing program that was ended by Brian Mulroney. The next four were started under a provincial program that was ended by Mike Harris. None have been started since.

Instead of putting money into an expanded housing program that would include both co-operatives and non-profits, our banks and credit companies have been selling the dream of private ownership. Forty-year mortgages with no down payment turned the dream into a nightmare for a lot of families. By the time the debt is paid down, the home owners will have given the bank about three times what they thought they were buying the house for, if they manage to keep it. These loans are a risky business. By the middle of October, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) will stop insuring them.

There are a lot worse ways to spend your days than managing a co-operative housing community. The rewards are plenty, and the aggravations melt away quickly enough.

The only thing wrong with Guelph housing co-ops is that there are not enough of them. If you run into the election candidates in the next two weeks, ask them why this is and what they plan to do about it.