West Valley Properties

This July 1 many of us celebrated Canada Day by watching Peter Mansbridge on the CBC in Ottawa with great pride. Many of us are also watching the rest of the world with hope and in many cases fear. Most of us have concerns about trouble spots of social unrest in the world in Africa, Asia and the areas within the so-called Arab Spring.

What can be done for world problems?  Here is what I think from my REM point of view.

It occurs to me that all the trouble spots in the world have one thing in common – a lack of property ownership. The only thing that is consistently missing is the right to own, buy and sell real estate. It seems to me if that one simple thing was changed, we would have peace and no trouble spots anywhere. If anyone thinks that sounds too goofy or off the wall, okay. Go ahead and tell me the right answer.

I think we are all tired of hearing that the solution isn’t simple. I have lost all patience for experts who pontificate that the problems in the world are more complex than we are able to understand.

It all comes down to the simple aspiration to have a family home. Just the chance of property ownership. That’s the key to it. No one should be denied the opportunity to buy a home. Everyone must have a fair chance to own property. All we need are rules to keep things fair. To have fair rules means the creation of fair common law. Good common laws mean jobs for judges, lawyers, elected officials, managers and even tax collectors. A fair economy decides democratically who the leaders will be for a limited time through fair elections.  All of this means freedom and the foundation of it all is home ownership.

Here in Canada, while we may be ahead of these other folks, we by no means have a completely fair situation. We may have economy and we may have aspiration here but we must remain vigilant to keep moving forward. We still have people who cheat and steal. We still have corruption. We still have situations that are not fair.

Here in Canada we talk of honour for First Nations but our clash of cultures does not seem to permit property ownership on the vast majority of First Nations reserves. That is hard for me to understand as I believe so profoundly that home ownership is the foundation of freedom. I don’t deny that I have a great deal to learn about that. My children have First Nation heritage in their ethnic makeup and I want to share the wisdom of this culture with them. But I do not understand why property ownership is not permitted on reserves.

Here in Canada we encourage property ownership, the more the better, but we have to watch out that the ownership of property, especially commercial property, is not in the hands of just a few wealthy people and corporations instead of ordinary working stiffs. I worry sometimes that we are moving toward that, especially in the areas of media. I worry about a handful of companies having control over all communication properties such as Internet and cell phones. I worry about one company owning all the sports properties in one city. I fear that will happen very shortly in Toronto for example.

Real estate is the foundation of freedom but it must be treasured and protected.  Complacency is the foundation of losing freedom. I urge everyone to celebrate our freedom but let’s not forget that we still have work ahead of us. The only way forward is to work together. Peacefully.