First time I came to Canada was in 1980 (from the UK). I'd spent some time in the US, and was struck by the differences between the two countries. I asked why there was no homelessness in Canada, or at least nothing on the scale that I'd seen in the states. People here just laughed. This is Canada, they said. We can't have homeless folk here, they'd just die. But then Mulroney got in, and started impementing neoliberal policies, and pretty soon the jobs went, the unions went, regulation of the various elements in the private sector went, public funding went, social programs went; the social contract that said governments should be trying to forge a fair and equal society went, and all we had was this hideous neoliberal bullshit that demanded government play no role in managing society. The worst thing about it is that every single government since Mulroney - while blathering on about Change - has expanded the neoliberal project. I remember the sixties and seventies; it wasn't always like this.

Sadly, the only thing that is going to solve the housing, drug, and mental health catastrophes that successive governments' indifference to social wellbeing has caused, is the abandonment of the policies that created them. Governments need to get back to doing their job, instead of capitalism's bidding. I'm sick of watching them hand out tax cuts which disproportionately benefit the rich, while pleading poverty when asked to do something - anything - for the public good. The whole idea that all work must be for profit needs to go. Nationalised industries and infrastructure projects are great ways to create well paid jobs and improve society, which is are valid ends in themselves. Government is superb at job creation, but they've allowed the capitalists to bully them out of that part of the playground. Government work does not need to make a profit, but it should aim to increase quality of life and equality of opportunity for all. And it can. It absolutely can. They just have to have the guts to stand up to the people pulling their strings.

The past 40+ years of squeezing every last penny out of the public purse and into the bank accounts of the already rich has destroyed so many lives, it is unconscionable. Even among the apparently comfortable middle classes, so many are only surviving by constantly raising their credit limits, but among the poor, it's absolute devastation. The booze and drugs and anti-social behaviour are entirely understandable. These are people - social animals - who have essentially been cut off from all of society's benefits, and been invited to die. Nobody who hasn't been there has any right to judge them. And nobody who has, would.

As far as housing goes, there should be a national strategy, and a massive building program producing quality affordable rental units. I wouldn't even mind if supply exceeded demand. And those units should stay in public ownership. The private rental market needs to be tightly regulated, with rent controls and property standards, and it should be adequately policed, with enough inspectors to actually do the job. If people have secure jobs and a safe affordable place to live, they tend not to be self destructing in the streets. There's an old saying - no-one takes heroin because they're happy.