This article is published by iPolitics on April 27, 2015. Click here to read the article.
It’s not a huge sample and it’s hardly scientific, but it’s nonetheless a first impression of how Canadian seniors feel about a federal budget full of measures to woo them.

Over the weekend, the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) reached out their 90,000 members to gauge whether the Conservatives did enough in last week’s budget to lock up their vote.

As L. Ian MacDonald highlighted in a column for iPolitics on Sunday, there was no shortage of senior-targeted moves in Economic Action Plan 2015, including new withdrawal rates for Registered Retirement Income Funds, the Home Accessibility Tax Credit, and the doubling of the TFSA contribution limit.

But CARP’s results show the Harper government’s 2012 decision to raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement benefits hasn’t been forgotten, either.

“Does this budget meet the needs you see for older Canadians enough to earn your support at the ballot box, or should it go further?” CARP asked, giving their members four answers from which to choose.

Of the 2,010 responses they received, 51.6 per cent (1037) said their support is dependent on reversing the decision to raise the OAS and GIS eligibility ages, and reducing senior poverty more generally; 22.8 per cent (459) said the budget goes far enough; 15.7 per cent (316) said the budget was a good start, but would be better with a reversal of the OAS/GIS decision; and 9.9 per cent (198) said they didn’t know.