It's Their Nature

If you're like me, you too may be puzzled by the Conservatives' latest attack on ordinary Canadians. I'm referring of course to their intention to make us wait until we're 67 to receive Old Age Security.

As we get older, our brains shrink, we spend our evenings watching Law and Order, and we vote Conservative. So there hardly seems to be a lot of electoral upside in compelling millions of wrinklies to labour deeper into their dotage.

But it's unlikely that the Cons would actually alienate many members of their base. Any changes will probably be phased in over a number of years so as to leave anyone currently over 55 unscathed. And raising the OAS eligibility age will hurt mainly poorer Canadians, who tend not to vote Conservative, or vote at all, for that matter.

On the other hand, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has made a bizarre attempt to frame the move as intended to help younger Canadians: apparently working longer is supposed to make them more self-reliant. Presuming they can ever get jobs that is, what with the fogies hanging in there 'til nearly all their allotted three score and ten is exhausted.

The Cons have had success with wedge issues before, and perhaps they hope to whip up some intergenerational hostility, but punishing younger voters seems like a risky strategy if they want to attract their support.

According to Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, OAS is affordable as is. And as most economists have pointed out, a few years after any changes were to come into effect, Boomers will start dropping off the twig at such a rate that the cost of providing OAS will begin to decline anyway.

Aesop told a fable about a scorpion who convinced a frog to carry him across a river by promising not to sting the frog, pointing out that if he did, both of them would perish. Halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog anyway. Before they both died, the frog asked the scorpion why he had done such a foolhardy thing. The scorpion replied, "It's my nature."

So if there aren't any votes in it, it hurts both young and old, and it's unnecessary to boot, why are the Conservatives considering such a capricious, mean-spirited, and wrong-headed move? I guess it's just their nature.

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