Anit Poverty Committee

I feel as though I should clarify my position on what I described as the “affordable housing lobby” in my previous Blog post. First, there is a distinct difference between the meaning of affordable housing in Canada and in the United States. In the US, the chief proponent of affordable housing is the Democratic Party, and the vehicle by which they endeavor to make housing affordable is through the federally subsidized mortgage providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In Canada, affordable housing is more of a provincial issue than a federal issue, and the organizations that are lobbying for it are not asking for cheap mortgages to buy homes at market prices; but rather they are demanding that the government build them houses and give them away either for free or for cheap. There is no official lobby group whose sole purpose is affordable housing (at least that I could find with a simple Google search). In British Columbia, the two loudest organizations are the Anti Poverty Committee and the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (commonly referred to as the APC and DERA). These are the clowns who trash office buildings and engage in combative civil disobedience with the Vancouver Police. As the APC proudly lists on its website “The Anti-Poverty Committee is an organization of poor and working people, who fight for poor people, their rights and an end to poverty by any means necessary” with an emphasis on “any means necessary”.

In terms of the political parties in Canada who support the agenda of the APC and DERA, or at least the outcome of social housing without the means of civil disobedience, not even the Liberal Party of Canada is on board. They are at least fiscally responsible enough to realize that legislating the banking industry to provide absurd mortgages to people who can’t afford them is folly. Granted, Stephan Dion was a vocal supporter of “Social Justice”, which is the European code term for Marxism. The new Leader of the Liberals does not have any policy at all so it is impossible to say what he supports or does not support. I visited their website, and they offer no policy what so ever, not even the lofty unattainable platitudes of the NDP. The NDP is the only federal party stupid enough to support the goals of the APC, as “affordable housing” is prominently displayed in their policy subsection.

In 2007 after invading and trashing the office of a VANOC executive, the head of the APC David Cunningham was interviewed on a local radio talk show, and I tip my hat to Pratt and Taylor. At first the clown complains that he can only get a job with 2 shifts a week for DERA, and when pressed on the issue, he admits that he is happy working his 2 shifts per week and doesn’t want a better job. Aside from being lazy, it is safe to assume that a major reason that this individual does not want a fulltime job is because at that point he would no longer qualify for subsidized housing and welfare. I strongly recommend listening to the interview, for a clear insight into the mind of the head of the Anti Poverty Committee in British Columbia, the most vocal proponent of “affordable housing”.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4RyjtdNzII&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs3xDDs6Hek