That Koeverden win: What will it mean for Milton and the country? Could turn out to be a lot more than many expected.

By Pepper Parr

October 22nd, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

When you take more than 50% of the vote from a former Cabinet Minister who has been elected in the riding three times – you have done something significant.

After that – what’s next for Adam van Koeverden?

Turns out he has known the Prime Minister personally for more than 15 years; the two men appear to work together very well.

Koeverden has to first learn to become a Parliamentarian and to establish his own network; learn the ropes and figure out where he can shine.

Four Olympic medals and two world championships to his credit.

A successful four Olympic medal winner would make sports an obvious place to dig in.

Turns out that Koeverden has some well-developed views on housing issues and some solutions to the affordability problem the country faces.

Adam was raised in the co-op housing community; a form of housing in which you are a member of a co-op and you have the right to a residence with the understanding that you will be part of the team that maintains the property.

The residents never have any equity in the housing. The equity stays with the co-operative organization.

Co-op housing is attractive, well built and not subject to unfair rent increases.

In most co-ops there is a membership fee but that isn’t a huge amount of money – and when you leave the co-op you get your membership money back.

Co-ops have to limit their membership to a number that is a bit above the number of housing units they have. Just about every co-op in the country has a long membership waiting list.

Well managed co-ops work – the problem is that many are not that well managed.

In Canada many of the co-ops are organized by people from the same nationality. People from the Scandinavian countries have been very successful at forming co-ops and running them very effectively.

Keoverden believes that co-ops are the solution to Canada’s affordable housing crisis.

At one point CMHC Canada Mortgage and Housing pumped millions into the co-op community.  They moved away from those programs about a decade ago.

Reviving this form of housing is something Adam will want to advocate. It might be something the government with a fresh mandate might adopt – it certainly has potential.

The Co-op community is bigger than many realize.

The downside is that Canadians have been raised to believe that a normal life is to get an education, marry, have children, buy a starter house, fix it up and when you need more space for more children you do an upgrade.

That was the deal in the 60’s, 70’s and the 80’s. It isn’t the deal today.

There would have to be a huge educational job to convince Canadians to give up on the idea of ever “owning” a home and instead settle for having the kind of space you need and know that your rent is not going to increase every year.

Expect to hear a lot from the Canadian Co-op Housing Federation on this issue.

The strength of character and the discipline to win at the Olympic level will serve K well- it will pay dividends for Milton as well

Whether it is sports or co-ops housing Adam Kovererden is going to have an impact . Time will tell where it is going to be.

What will all this mean for Milton? We are going to have to wait and see how Kovererden decides how best he can serve the community because once he sets his mind on something he usually succeeds – just count the medals.

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It did get him elected

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For more information on co-op housing CLICK here