Toronto    Pushing thirteen years old, ACORN Canada is like a teenager going through a growth spurt, making it exciting to hear the passion and discussion of the ACORN board as they debated new directions, campaigns, and other initiatives. It was a time of transition with new leaders coming on board in full strength for the first time from Nova Scotia, new delegates elected from Ottawa and British Columbia and summer plans that could expand the organization into Winnipeg and Calgary in the western states for the first time. Yippee, kayay, here we come!

The reports from the testimony made throughout the country via Skype teleconferencing to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on our demands for “internet for all” were, believe it or not, moving. And, they moved the head of the CRTC, who was honest enough to say so himself. The new delegate from Ottawa repeated the testimony that brought tears to her eyes, when one of the members had told the story of her 7-year old coming to her and asking if he could be sent to a foster home. A foster home, what in the world?!? The child said, if he were able to live with another family, then he could get a tablet and connect to the internet. Her face turned red as she told the story, and tears came to her eyes. Were the rest of us not so jaded, we all would have been weeping – such a sad, terrible, true story. We’re going to win something, but we may not win all we need to make sure 7-year olds never say this again, but we won’t stop until that day!

There was also an exciting discussion, as I listened carefully, about the need for a national housing policy in Canada. Yes, inclusionary zoning and landlord licensing were huge issues everywhere, but the leadership wanted to figure out a way to double down, to increase security for tenants, to open up opportunities for home ownership, and to dramatically increase the pool of affordable housing. The discussion was so animated that lunch was late and the queue for more points to be made saw everyone around the board table throwing out suggestions. I was excited when the board passed a motion to investigate, research and move forward on finally doing what it took to win a community reinvestment act in Canada along the lines available in the United States for almost forty years. As importantly, the board unanimously demanded in the same motion that banks fully disclose not only their lending statistics for home mortgages but also for smaller consumer loans. Movement in this direction seemed natural since the refusal to by banks to lend small sums was forcing our members into fringe banking outfits like our payday lending nemesis of long standing.

So sure, there were internal decisions made that were necessary to keep the big wheels rolling: officers elected or re-elected, a decision on the location of the 2017 national convention, and clarification, given the growth of the board, on different rules and best practices for all levels of governance. There was discussion of a huge summer program which will pace student organizer-trainees in new cities and provinces as well as Ontario and British Columbia. Mainly, though even as the reports were given and the leaders analyzed the progress in the last year, there was a spirit and a conviction that the organization was taking off and the members – and the country itself – hadn’t seen anything yet!

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Please enjoy Eric Clapton’s Catch the Blues. Thanks to KABF.