Joannie, you left out he part where you helped yourself to a huge chunk of the equity that your brother built up his home. Rememember that St. Paul Martin raided billions from the actuarial "surplus" in the PS pension fund. Sure would have been nice to see those funds invested and growing over the last quarter century.

Private sector employers, too, with the backing of our ever-quiescent courts help themselves to these "surpluses" and take holidays on their contributions while the regulators snooze, on the logic that if there's a shortfall the employer will have to make it up. Tell that to Nortel pensioners. After enriching execs and paying unsustainable dividends to shareholders, the enterprise simply declares bankruptcy. Problem solved.

Then we have those actuaries who simply throw their hands up after the surpluses disappear owing to poor investment performance. Nobody, they snivel, could have predicted 2008. No, but we might have allowed it was possible. Rainy day, and all that.