I like Cenk, normally he knows what he'd talking about.

but not this time.

Yes, Canadian banks survived PARTLY because they're better regulated. Our real estate didn't collapse, but not because it's in better shape than US real estate, dollar for dollar we're in deeper on mortgages than the US was during it's peak.

The reason the US collapsed and it didn't up here is that mortgage insurance in the US collapsed. They stopped giving out easy mortgage insurance right left and centre because the appetite for it on the markets dried up.

In Canada he's quite right, mortgage insurance doesn't get passed on to the markets.

Who supports mortgage insurance in Canada?

The taxpayer.

That's right, the government of Canada is footing the bill, right now and the amount of paper they're holding is several times Canada's GDP. The maximum the CMHC (the entity that does the insuring) can insure in a year has quadrupled over the past few years.

Sound like a good plan?

In essence it hasn't collapsed here yet because the government threw more money at the problem in the supply stage, before a meltdown could happen. All that does is delay the inevitable.

If you're Canadian get yourself informed, then contact your MP and tell them what you think about a government body who's mandate is to help get Canadians into affordable housing gambling with billions of YOUR dollars and artificially inflating the cost of real estate making it LESS affordable.

Legitimate arguments? Like the Government of Canada being a tyrannical government?

Logical space? Like equating health care reform with mob rule?

Trying to have a conversation with you is like arguing with a dining room table.

My real name doesn't matter, but my nick is a play on it. I live in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, working for the Government of Canada as a Research Analyst. It's not really reflective of what I do - but that's not all that clear either.

I grew up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where I completed a Commerce degree with a minor in Political Science. I have worked odd jobs as a graphic designer, brokerage assistant, bus boy, movie usher, filing clerk, web developer and printing press apprentice.

After University I lived in Hong Kong for 2 years where I was an Operations Manager for a local magazine and website, producing the monthly magazine (graphic design and layout) and the website (using Open Source software and tweaking the PHP code). I also taught orphans for a year (age 3 to 6) - I had 60 students I taught twice per week. My 2 years in Hong Kong was facilitated by VideoSift's constant stream of interesting videos from around the world of things worldly and beyond. I didn't need my 2 channels of chinese TV, but I did keep my Chinese movies. I can speak Chinese and read quite a bit too.

When I came back to Canada, I moved to the Nation's capital to work in the Public Service, and I am completing my Masters in Public Admin. I refuse to pay for cable television, but I do have a penchant for movies. My TV doesn't even get TV service (but is connected to a VCR and DVD player); VideoSift has essentially replaced my Television as my source of video information. I enjoy how it makes me an active participant in choosing the sources of video and information that I watch (rather than passively with the commercials on regular TV) and I have learned alot and been exposed to a lot that has expanded my mind.

I'm working on something I'm not yet ready to write about and that is not interesting enough yet to warrant the time.
My avatar is of me taped by my roommates to a formerly-abandoned cross outside our apartment during a Hallowe'en party I hosted in 2003. More photos here. (I was later carried down the street 2 blocks and propped up against a Café where other costumed onlookers shared in the reveling. I later carried the cross back to the apartment while being whipped by a skeleton Halloween decoration by my Judaism-supporting roommate.)

Hinterland Who's Who- another brilliant contribution of the National Film Board and the Government of Canada.