I have struggled with the same question and have always thought that Canada was a safer haven until we had a real heads up from the U.S....which, I assumed would give us some time to take action. However, with the rumors that Canaccord is having problems re their write off on ABCPs, coupled with the fact that Canadian brokers made so much profit naked shorting, coupled with the fact that the Canadian regulators and OSC and the industry are looking the other way in spite of a wave of complaints....I am very nervous.

The rumors are that Canaccord is a major Canadian U.S.conduit for naked shorting, and there are others. How many of the banks and "anonyomous" are actually working with the likes of Canaccord? They just make a nice profit on the transaction process. How many nontransparent levels are we working through here? What about the most exposed to CDOs such as CIBC, BMO, National etc? What about the boutiques such as Wellington West. Where are they all under the surface? I am a client of both Wellington West and National and they will not respond to my many queries as to their potential exposure to subprimes and naked shorting...not that they would. Yes, there is insurance via the investment dealers but how many millions can they handle and how good are their insurers? It all adds up to a real gamble on our part.

Would it surprise anyone if the likes of Canaccord/Wellington West suddenly made a horrendous disclosure one morning? What about the Canadian Banks and brokers that handle the transactions off to them? Why would they be liable for a third party's default? They wouldn't...so just because you may be a client of RBC or TD, it really doesn't matter....it won't be their problem.

I hate discussing tis because this site is for ECU and removes the discussion from the intended topic. On the other hand, if we lose out claim to our ECU shares, what does it matter?

I vascillate between thinking all of this is mere conjecture on my part to serious concern. I guess it really comes down to a judgeement call on all our parts....is our Canadian system still integral or do we have a real prblem. Trying to get answers is almost impossible....but there sure are a lot of red flags out there. If there are no pitfalls, why can't we get the truth and some concerned response from our supposed Gov. and corporate monitors?