August 6th, 2010
As Toronto gears up for its October 25 municipal elec•tions, CARP is calling on Toronto area members to turn out and grill your future mayor: find out what he or she will do to make your city a more age-friendly place. Download the Event Poster for More Details The event will feature former Toronto Mayor David Crombie as well as Zanana Akande, prominent activist, former MPP and the first black Canadian woman to have served as a cabinet minister. The event will also feature a surprise guest, but our lips are sealed for the time being.
It all takes place on Aug. 11. Show up with your ques•tions — and bring a friend — to CARP’s first ever May•oral Debate. Plan to show up early to make sure you get a seat – the response has been very strong. Can’t make it in person? The event will be streaming live on CARP.ca , zoomers.ca, zoomerradio.ca, classical963fm.com and the new 50plus site at http://beta.50plus.com/category/video/. Re-broadcast: Rogers TV, cable 10 (Toronto) 63 (Scarborough) and 510 in HD – Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 8:00 pm, Sat. Aug. 21 – 3:00pm, Mon. Aug. 30 – 7:00pm, Sun. Sep. 5 – 5:30pm
“This debate is the forum to find out whether the can•didates have a vision to make Toronto more age-friendly,” says Susan Eng, CARP’s vice-president of advocacy. “We’re used to hearing them shout out slogans. Now we’ll find out whether they are mindful of what it takes to make real change. And we want all politicians to make an audience of CARP members a “must-see” in their electoral campaigns. After all, older voters are the most politically engaged – 70% of us vote regularly. So it makes sense for the politicians to address our issues directly”
Eng, as debate moderator, will challenge the five main candidates — Rob Ford, Rocco Rossi, Sarah Thomson, Joe Pantalone and George Smitherman — on the issues that concern older residents. “The municipal realm has authority over key facets that affect our members,” says Eng, pointing to social ser-vices, transportation, affordable housing and fighting elder abuse as examples. “We’ll be looking for practical answers.” And if they start spouting from their election platform? “We’ll pull the plug,” Eng promises.
CARP will use this event as a launching pad, with the idea that chapters across Canada will hold their own debates where ever there’s a local election. CARP’s Barrie chapter has committed to staging its own debate for that city’s municipal elections this fall. The Ottawa chapter also has plans in the works.
During the last meeting, the Barrie Chapter had discussed this idea, the meeting notes and chapter information are
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