Moses On The Mount

It’s a powerful message indeed.

Baby boomers are the biggest and wealthiest demographic ever to walk the planet, and Znaimer is determined to corral as many as he can of Canada’s greying masses to push for social change through the ballot box.

What’s left unsaid, of course, is that he stands to make millions in the process, as he crafts an aging empire that, in time, could also include stakes in a range of products and services that cater to a population willing to spend whatever it takes to fight off the ravages of age.

Those age 45 and up, which the marketing genius has rebranded zoomers — “boomers with zip” — account for 58 per cent of all consumer spending, made $1.5 billion in online purchases in the past year and buy 80 per cent of health-care products, according to a slick video that Znaimer has been showing to CARP members across the country.

But the real reason he’s come to the country’s capital is to deliver a political heads up to MPs: Zoomers are well-educated, well-informed — and close to 70 per cent of them vote regularly. In other words, help keep us comfortable as we grow old and we can help keep you in office.

“We’re a communications instrument that you can use in a creative way to communicate to our membership and our membership listens,” Znaimer tells politicians.

CARP is already taking some of the credit for new legislation at the federal and provincial levels that has given seniors tax breaks through pension-income splitting and HST relief on heating costs. And there seems to be some support from federal Liberals for one of CARP’s key proposals — a program based loosely on maternity-benefits programs that would allow family members to take paid time off work to be caregivers to elderly relatives.

In fact, when federal Minister of State for Seniors Diane Ablonczy heard Znaimer was coming to Ottawa, she asked for a face-to-face meeting: “I just think he’s an out-of-the-box thinker who brings a different perspective to some of these issues,” she said in an interview later.

“When people first began to get a sense of what I was up to, their reflex was that I had somehow changed sides,” Znaimer says. “It seemed peculiar to some that the guy who had launched youth media in Canada was now talking to geezers.

“But I tell them, ‘I’m still with the same gang. It’s just that I seem to be the only one in the country who noticed that they all got older.’ ”

At 73, Murray is on the upper end of zoomerdom, but she’s the perfect personality fit for Znaimer’s growing empire. She still works, on a contract basis. When she signed on with Ottawa’s Public Health Agency of Canada a few months ago, someone in human resources called to ask if her age was wrong on her file.

“My ski group is going to Austria in March so I need money,” Murray says, laughing.

She’s heard from some who find the whole zoomer thing more than a little patronizing.