I find it quite rich that Diane Finley is following Vic Toews' public relations strategy to sell the government's plan to raise the qualification age for Old Age Security to 67 from 65.
She spoke to the Canadian Club yesterday and singled out a table of youngsters -- who no doubt had their tickets paid for by the Tories -- and suggested we oldsters should sacrifice a little for the up and coming generation.
Finley took the opportunity to use young people as a human shield, just as Vic the Dick Toews had used children to protect him from those who were against his plan to have cops hack into our emails.
"The total cost of benefits will be increasingly unsustainable for tomorrow's workers and taxpayers," she said. "And it's the next generations of Canadians who will have to shoulder the burden."
In other words, we are unfairly burdening our children and grandchildren because of our impending slackery.
Wait a minute, there missy.
I suppose it doesn't count that older people continue to pay for the schooling of those same young people. We pay for the yellow school buses. We pay for the over-inflated salaries of those teachers.
As parents, we have shouldered a mighty high burden in getting our kids through post-secondary and, at least in my household, I'm continuing to help subsidize the living expenses of my son, his girlfriend and our lovely little granddaughter by several thousand dollars.
I don't think it's asking a lot for the youngin's we've been propping up to throw the old folks a meagre little government paycheque starting at age 65. I don't have a private pension. I had to work part-time as a single mother for most of my life because my husband walked out on his family.
I'd be happy to work beyond 65 but I doubt I'll be able to.
The odds are working against me.
I've endured a lifetime of high stress and now count high blood pressure as my constant companion. While I am active and eat well, I do not have the energy to put in a full day's work even now.
I'm fighting for my life at age 55 and I've got 10 years to go to the OAS, 12 if the Tories have their way.
Besides, nobody told us, say 25 years ago, that the rules will change just as we start to apply for our well earn retirement funds. I might have saved a little more, might have booted the kids to the curb a little earlier and made my own way a little better.
Doesn't matter what I think.
We live in Toryland now. A place of smallness and pettiness. A place run by a collection of superannuated career politicians who could care less about the people are struggling to get by.
I'm planning on pre-ordering a cyanide pill on the Internet, just in case.
I'll let you know where to get it.
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