Seniors may prove more fertile ground. The latest Nanos poll shows the Conservatives at 42 per cent, the Liberals at 29 per cent and the NDP at 19 per cent among the over-60s. That’s slightly better than the Conservatives’ 39-per-cent support overall.
As the campaign kicks into gear, party strategies will focus on courting, and bringing out, the senior-citizen vote.
“A big part of my vote is making sure I get my seniors out,” said Judy Sgro, seniors critic for the Liberal Party. Like other candidates, she and volunteer canvassers in her Toronto-area riding talk to seniors at the door, try to divine their voting intention, and if it’s favourable, will call on election day, offering to drive older voters to the polls if needed.
The NDP, meanwhile, is determined the make itself known as the party that cares about older voters in need. The New Democrats decided to defeat the Conservatives largely over their refusal to increase funding by $700-million for the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which the party contends would lift 250,000 low-income seniors above the poverty line.
“We’ve heard it, year after year on the doorstep,” said MP Chris Charlton, the NDP’s critic on seniors’ issues. “Seniors who’d worked hard all their lives, who’d played by the rules, now everywhere they’re turning, every bill they’re paying, they’re working more and paying less.”
Conservative Seniors Minister Julian Fantino believes the opposition parties are using seniors as “pawns in a political arena.”
His party has its own agenda for winning the seniors vote. The budget promises $300-million to the GIS, which Mr. Fantino says is the most a fiscally responsible federal government can afford, and offers its own tax credit for caregivers of infirm family members.
Demographer David Foot said although there’s a perception that older people tend to be small-c conservative, it’s a label that applies to some, not all.
“The Canadian voter tends to be all over the map,” Prof. Foot said. “Their voting patterns aren’t predictable by age, as we so often assume.”
Allan Froom, an 80-year-old retired teacher and insurance investigator, is one of the prized seniors being courted by the various political parties. Mr. Froom lives in Thornhill, a Toronto riding that went Conservative in the last election. He has been a Liberal-Conservative swing voter all his life. He says the environment is the most important issue in his view, so he’s only leaning Conservative at this point.
“Quite frankly I wish there wasn’t an election, but there’s going to be one anyway, whether we need it or not,” Mr. Froom said. “I’m probably going to vote for Harper, but I’m not sure about it.”
Keywords: seniors, election, demographics
