Our Generation’s Political Agenda
IN THE ’60s, Pete Townshend penned the anthem of our generation: “Hope I die before I get old!” Well, he didn’t, and neither did we. Luckily, we’re joined by our prime minister, all our premiers and the front benches of the legislatures across the country – baby boomers all (most).
So it should come as no surprise that the issues that matter to us are at the forefront of the public policy agenda.
Pensions are a prime example – they’re no longer just an employment opportunity for actuaries. A few short years ago, the federal government refused to even acknowledge that Canadians were not saving enough for retirement; they even hired experts to tell us we had nothing to worry about.
But then the markets crashed, hitting even those with pension plans. The headlines woke up many of those thinking about retirement to the realization that they didn’t even have a pension plan to worry about. Thus began the pressure for pension reform.
The issue hit the political sweet spot – Canadians 45-plus – or about 42 per cent of the population. Those already retired were even more anxious because they knew what it took to get by once the paycheques stop and could see that their kids were not saving enough. They needed a broad-based retirement savings vehicle to help them.
So, by 2010, the federal govern- ment did a 180, accepted that there was a savings gap, that government had a role to play and offered up the Pooled Registered Pension Plans and a possible increase to the CPP. Whatever deficiencies the PRPPs have, they are nonetheless a significant improvement on the status quo.
At press time, the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan modelled on the CPP is a major election plank for the Ontario Liberals. If it comes to fruition and is paralleled across the country, this will be a change for a generation.
In Pete Townshend’s heyday, no one would be caught dead talking about home care much less dementia care. Today, home care has been pronounced a health-care funding priority across the country – admittedly with varying degrees of success – and the vast majority of boomers say they’ve been touched by dementia, either in their family or someone they know well. It is no longer someone else’s problem. They have faced the challenges of helping a parent or spouse through a chronic illness or all the stages of dementia and some, for the first time in their lives, watched someone die. And demanded better for their loved ones and, soon enough, for themselves. These are no longer abstract issues; they are part of their lived experience.
And so the quintessential issue of this age – controlling how we die – has already hit the order pa- pers. Quebec’s legislation to permit medically assisted death passed with all party support. Conservative MP Steven Fletcher’s private member’s bill is poised for parliamentary debate. And the Supreme Court of Canada will be reconsidering its 20-year-old decision in the Sue Rodriguez case this fall.
Boomers are not just the pig in the python demanding these changes; their hands are also on the levers of power. That may be why long standing prohibitions like marijuana and same-sex marriage have fallen in such rapid succession, both here and in the United States.
We are at a flexion point, no longer satisfied with a nip and a tuck
“Let’s set about being the change we wish to see in the world”
(except maybe around the eyes) but ready to take on the most contentious of issues in order to preserve our quality of life or even improve it. Bring on the “bozo eruptions” if that’s what it takes to flush out all the arguments. And then let’s set about being the change we wish to see in the world – as that other ’60s icon, Mahatma Ghandi, would have it. We’ve outgrown Townshend.