Hi everyone!
I just received this timely information from CARP to help you ask questions and determine the support and awareness that the candidates have for seniors during the final days of the election campaign. That information is in the next article in the newsletter
Whatever your political affiliations and beliefs, let’s work together to encourage people to vote. And don’t forget to ask your friends if they are not already members to join CARP Chapter #21 here in PEI.
Last night was our Fundraiser for the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation. A special thank you to all who attended and made our 1st Annual Event a successful and fun evening. CARP had donated 3 Free Memberships, 2 Ladies’ and 1 Men’s CARP watches and 1 CARP vest ( as advertised in the March monthly newsletter). It was reassuring to receive positive comments about our work in 2011 on the island.
A quick reminder to call and reserve a place for you and a non-member friend at our upcoming Informal sessions. Call me at (902) 436-3459 for the May 4th session in Summerside, and May 18th in Cornwall. We are holding them to get to know each other, to find out your needs at the provincial & municipal levels and to share information on what your membership means to you to help non-members better appreciate CARP. I personally thank you for your support, calls and emails.
Working together we can make a difference.
Sincerely,
Barbara
Barbara A Sinden CARP PEI Chairperson [email protected] 902 436 3459
Door Step Questions for the Candidates
Last week, CARP released a challenge to federal electoral candidates to address the priorities of older Canadians if they want their vote. CARP is encouraging its members and anyone else who cares deeply about our quality of life as we age to pose these questions to the candidates knocking on their doors seeking their votes. The document is available at: http://www1.carp.ca/PDF/DoorstepQuestions.pdf The CARP Doorstep Questions ask whether the candidates support a supplementary pension, an end to mandatory RRIF withdrawals, GIS increase, automatic enrolment for OAS/GIS/CPP, substantial support for family caregivers, bulk purchasing of drugs, addressing elder abuse, bringing back the mandatory long form census and limiting prorogation. These priorities are drawn from member poll results in CARP ActionOnline surveys.
This follows a CARP Debate held on April 13, 2011 and broadcast on Vision TV among Bob Rae [Liberal], Wayne Marston [NDP] and Bernard Trottier [Conservative] focused on the priorities of older Canadians. To watch the CARP Debate: http://www.carp.ca/advocacy/adv-article-display.cfm?documentid=5188 Most of the doorstep Questions were posed to the debaters to respond on behalf of their parties and there was some surprising consensus on auto enrolment for GIS, full retroactivity for OAS/GIS/CPP, and they all committed to offering incentives for employers to retain willing older workers. Perhaps most surprisingly, all three debaters supported bulk purchasing of drugs and to move towards a national universal pharmacare program. “The attention paid in this election campaign so far to issues that will resonate with older voters is unprecedented. CARP has called on all parties to deal with retirement security, healthcare and support for caregivers – priorities identified by our members – and all parties have made promises, which if implemented, would significantly improve the status quo. And so they should. The message has got through to them that 70% of older Canadians vote regularly. The question now is to make sure those election promises become a reality – and that’s where the voter comes in:- this is the time to extract commitments in exchange for your vote”, said Susan Eng, VP Advocacy for CARP.
