TORONTO, ON: 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. [Please see attached document it is also available: here
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: click here
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 thats where the voter comes in:- this is the time to extract commitments in exchange for your vote, said Susan Eng, VP Advocacy for CARP.
CARP is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to advocating for a New Vision of Aging for Canada, social change that will bring financial security, equitable access to health care and freedom from discrimination. CARP seeks to ensure that the marketplace serves the needs and expectations of our generation and provides value-added benefits, products and services to our members. Through our network of chapters across Canada, CARP is dedicated to building a sense of community and shared values among our members in support of CARPs mission
