The Financial Post reports in its Thursday, Nov. 13, edition that Americans may soon get the privilege of 50-year mortgages. The Post's Gary Marr writes that President Donald Trump floated the idea on social media, pitching it as a way to tackle housing affordability. It would stretch the traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the American gold standard, to 50 years. That is 10 times longer than the five-year terms Canadians cling to, as if they offer real security against rising rates. Mr. Marr says let us be clear: we are not talking amortization here. Canadians already spread payments over 25 or 30 years. The difference is Americans lock in their mortgage rate for decades, while Canadians nervously line up every five years to renew for the historically most popular term. Right now, 1.8 million Canadian homeowners are staring down renewals within the next year. Many of those borrowers are about to see their interest rate double. "It will put an ongoing bite on discretionary spending," said Bank of Montreal economist Sal Guatieri, who nevertheless thinks delinquency rates will remain low because most of those people had to qualify based on a rate closer to five per cent.