On Aging, Attachments #1-5

Attachment #1: Bibliography

Attachment #2: Potential Future Events of Significance 

Attachment #3: Major Historical Events in My Lifetime

Attachment #4: Research bodies and organizations focusing on ageing

Attachment #5: Old Age Security In Canada

Attachment #1: Bibliography

• Stayin’ Alive: How Canadian Baby Boomers Will Work, Play, and Find Meaning in the Second Half of Their Adult Lives, by Michael Adams (president of the Environics group of marketing research and communications consulting companies)
• The End of Old Age: Living a Longer, More Purposeful Life by Dr. Marc Agronin. (Note: he is one of America’s leading geriatric psychiatrists.) 
• The Coming of Age by Simone de Beauvoir
• Why Survive? Being Old In America by Robert Butler 
• Sleep Thieves: An Eye-opening Exploration into the Science and Mysteries of Sleep  by Stanley Coren
• The Fountain of Age byBetty Friedman
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Dr. Atul Gawande 
• The Denial of Aging by Muriel Gillick 
• The Longevity Paradox by Dr. Steven Gundry 
• Rethinking Old Age: Theorising the Fourth Age by Paul Higgs 
• Never Say Die: The Myth & Marketing of the New Old Age by Susan Jacoby
• Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit and Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond by Dr. Henry Lodge and Chris Crowley
• The Art of Aging: A Doctor’s Prescription for Well-Being by Dr. Sherwin Nuland
• Neglected No More: The Urgent Need to Improve the Lives of Canada’s Elders in the Wake of a Pandemic by André Picard
• Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development by Dr. George E. Vaillant (a psychoanalyst)
• A Roller-coaster Ride: Thoughts On Aging by Naomi Beth Wakan 

Attachment #2: Potential Future Events of Significance

I’d love to (but likely won’t) be around to watch or be part of some seminal and quite profound events:

• How do moral values and religions evolve and guide the human race 
• How race conflicts play themselves out in the major flashpoint areas
• Adaption to the climate crisis: electrification of transportation; food consumption, rising seas (witness the massive melting Antarctic Thwaites glacier), job transformations, etc.
• How the world protects animal, marine and insect populations 
• Education challenges and evolution (including concept of knowledge as an end in its own right vs skills for job preparation); concept of lifelong leaning
• How the consequences of the huge demographic shifts now playing themselves out in the world (particularly humans not reproducing themselves in major areas) will affect all the major issues (politics, state and cultural conflicts, religion, environment, etc.)
• The discoveries that will be made from current efforts in examining and exploring space outside of the earth’s narrow sphere. Launching of the recent James Webb space telescope that is 100 times more powerful than we have currently through Hubble will produce surprises 
• Physical space exploration, including Elon Musk’s dream of Mars habitation
• Health care innovations that include truly mapping out how the brain works; solutions for dementia; computer driven robot operations; gene editing resulting in xenotransplantation (replacing human parts with animal ones); health care by phone; end-of-life possibilities; vaccines for anything 
• How steps being made to extend life at any cost (both financial but also psychic) in a pro-longevity posture will play out
• Accommodating ongoing epidemics like COVID-19 
• How the fortunes of democracy will play out in the severely divided US 
• How the fortunes of democracy will fare when matched with the dictates of authoritarian regimes, particularly China and Russia 
• How fast third world countries will close the significant economic and education/health imbalance 
• Effects of the infiltration of robots and automation: job depletion/creation; manufacturing, retail (taking/delivering orders; stocking shelves); self-driving vehicles, etc 
• Shifts in human concepts of, and practices in, leisure
• Changing choices in the entertainment industry (simulation/virtual reality games; music, theatre, cinema, etc.) 
• Societal influence of, and control over, social media
• How gender politics and male/female roles evolve 
• Evolution of new anti-oppressive, inclusivistic agendas of all and any on the fringes of the Bell curve (more letters to add to LGBTQ2S+) 
• How the digital revolution is transforming currencies and finance, including the end of cash, the rise of cryptocurrencies (even the C/D. Howe Institute thinks the Bank of Canada should issue a digital currency that can be converted into cash) 
• Implications of housing costs disassociating from income

Attachment #3: Major Historical Events in My Lifetime

I’ve selected the following symbolic and significant list of political, environmental, cultural, scientific, medical events that I’ve been around for in my lifetime:

• 1939: I was born just before the start of WWII and when the population of the world was 2.3 billion people; one of my uncles was a pilot for the whole conflagration; he mesmerized me with his stories
• 1941: the December 7 bombing of Pearl Harbour by the Japanese; essentially bringing the US into the war
• 1942: I remember air raid drills even though WWII was not on Canadian soil; this included blacking out house lights and closing blinds and curtains
• Early 1940s: our house was heated with coal; I remember my father taking delivery on a chute down to the coal bin in the basement
• 1945: first atomic bombs used in war (on Nagasaki and Hiroshima) that helped end WWII
• 1945: VE (Victory in Europe) Day, May 8, when church bells rang in my neighbourhood signifying the end of the war
• 1947: start of Cold War: from Truman Doctrine to dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991
• Late 1940s: my mother started to use an electric washing machine and a clothes dryer; I remember her old ribbed washboard
• 1950: maiden test flight at Malton airport near Toronto of the only Canadian-designed fighter plane, the CF-100 Mk Is, to enter mass production
• 1951: Princess Elizabeth made her first major royal visit across Canada; I remember the massive welcome she received in Toronto; three months later, she began her reign as Queen Elizabeth II.
• 1951: saw my first black and white TV program, with the signal source from the US. Think of it – I was there when TV was available publicly; this morphed into Saturday night doses of Ed Sullivan and the Toronto Maple Leafs (the broadcast starting only at the second period)
• 1956: Lucille Wheeler won Canada’s first Olympic skiing medal – a bronze in the downhill at Cortina
• 1957: polio scare and then my father contracted it, as the Salk vaccine was given then only to children; he was subsequently paralyzed and spent many months in an iron lung and years in rehab
• 1957: Canada signed the NORAD (North American Air Defense)Agreement with the US, that provided aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection for Northern America 
• 1958: first flight of the Avro Arrow, capable of Mach 2 speeds; development stopped and existing models destroyed in 1959; decision made by Diefenbaker PC government
• 1959: plane crash killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper (J.P.Richardson). The plane was called American Pie 
• 1960: birth control pills first available in Canada (officially only for “hormonal regulation,” and not for contraceptive purposes!); Ann got a prescription when in England from my doctor uncle just before we were married in 1964
• 1961-1975: Vietnam War start and finish; memories of draft dodgers to Canada
• 1961: Berlin Wall erected (taken down in 1989; I have a piece of it from a visit then to Berlin)
• 1961: inaugural address (Jan 20) by President John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
• 1961: the first cosmonaut, the Russian, Yuri Gagarin; his ride consisted of a single orbit around the earth
• 1962: Cuban missile crisis (considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war)
• 1962: publishing of Silent Spring by Rachel Carsen, documenting the adverse environmental effects caused by indiscriminate use of pesticides; DDT banned as a result
• 1963: assassinations of president John F. Kennedy (then Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in 1968)
• 1965: our Canadian maple leaf flag adopted
• 1966: the thin waif model Twiggy named “The Face of 1966” and “British Woman of the Year”
• 1966: I saw Carol Doda, the first US public topless dancer, dance at the Condor Club in San Francisco
• 1966-1976: the Cultural Revolution in China (Mao Zedong’s political comeback); millions persecuted and killed (I was only aware of this after)
• 1967: Expo ’67 in Montreal; visited it a number of times
• 1968: the debut of the musical Hair on Broadway, where I first saw it
• 1969: on July 20 I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land Apollo 11 (in lunar lander Eagle) on the moon. Neil actually stepped on the bloody moon!
• 1970: Video Cassette Recording (VCR) – the Phillips version –  introduced 
• 1970: the War Measures Act was introduced by PM Pierre Trudeau, in response to two kidnappings by the terrorist group Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ)
• 1972: Hewlett Packard introduced the first handheld scientific calculator, the HP-35
• 1972-1974: Watergate break-ins leading to resignation of President Richard Nixon
• 1973: the first oil crisis began when members of OPEC proclaimed an oil embargo against the United States in retaliation for the US decision to re-supply the Israeli military; crude oil prices climbed from $3/barrel to $19
• 1976: abolition of the death penalty in Canada
• 1976: the Concord, a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, made its first scheduled flight (from Paris to Rio) at twice the speed of sound; it only took 3 1/2 hours! 
• 1979: the second oil crisis caused another huge price spike and fuel shortages (long lines at gas stations) similar to the 1973 crisis 
• 1979: taking of 52 American hostages at US embassy in Tehran, Iran; six American diplomats were sheltered by Canadian diplomats and then escaped (the “Canadian Caper”)
• 1979: partial melt-down of the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania
• 1980: a personal computer first landed on my desk at work with little instruction; started this process called “email” communication; before I used Imperial Oil’s Systems and Computer Services department; they provided long IBM printouts with holes in the side; before that magnetic tape (1975); before that punch cards (1965)
• 1981: official start of AIDS epidemic (I lost an old public school friend to it)
• 1982: my two sons bought with their allowance an Atari computer with floppy disk as storage (to play games on, e.g. Pac-Man which was introduced in 1980 and Donkey Kong in 1981)
• 1982: Compact disc (CD) to store/play digital audio introduced
• 1982: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms promulgation; patriation of the Constitution from the authority of the British Parliament to Canada’s federal and provincial legislatures 
• 1984: the Bhopal gas tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, at theUnion Carbidepesticide plant in Bhopal, India
• 1986: melt down of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Russia: the worst nuclear disaster in history both in cost and casualties (Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 was as bad)
• 1989: the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker leased by Exxon Shipping Company, struck a reef in Alaska; a 11 million gallon oil spill occurred
• 1991: the World Wide Web opened to the public, and in 1993 the WWW technology declared free to anyone
• 1991: the USSR officially ceased to exist (it’s now the Russian Federation); the last Soviet leader, Gorbachev, resigns
• 1994: Rwandan genocide, where over half a million Tutsis were slaughtered by Rwandan armed militia
• 1995: Netscape IPO resulting in a market cap of over $2 billion
• 1996: Craigslist launched online
• 1997: car crash death of Princess Diana, the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales (the heir apparent to the British throne) and mother of Prince William and Prince Harry.
• 2000: Y2K problem (or Millennium bug); upgraded computer systems resolved this crisis
• 2001: September 11 (or 9/11) attacks on World Trade Centre; led by militant Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda; we all watched in horror, in real time
• 2001: introduction of Xbox by Microsoft Corp
• 2001: start of Wikipedia, the most widely read reference site in history
• 2003: US (along with the UK, Australia and Poland) invades Iraq; Canada refuses to go along
• 2003: the Human Genome Project finished its DNA map of human body (3 billion DNA letters)
• 2004: Facebook social networking service launched by Mark Zuckerberg
• 2005: Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 Atlantic cyclone (the costliest in terms of economic damages)
• 2005: I switched from a film camera to a digital version; have taken no print pictures since
• 2007: first smartphone, the iPhone (and iPad in 2010)
• 2009: Barack Obama elected as first African American US president
• 2008: financial crisis; The Recovery Act introduced by the US in 2009 as a stimulus package 
• 2009: Uber (and Airbnb in 2008) founded; starting the past 10 years boom in the share economy’s popularity
• 2011: Osama bin Laden, the Islamist al-Qaeda founder who was responsible for the September 11 attack, killed by US Navy SEALs
• 2014: Malaysia Airlines plane (239 passengers/crew) completely vanished after leaving Kuala Lumpur destined for Beijing
• 2016: the world struck a deal on climate change dubbed the Paris Agreement
• 2016: Brexit (“British exit” from the European Union) referendum occurred, followed by the actual exit in early 2020
• 2016: Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the US
• 2018: Apple Inc becomes the first public company to be worth US$1-trillion; it then took two years to get to US$2-trillion; by December 2021 it was just shy of US$3-trillion in market value
• 2017: #MeToo movement became viral on social media following public sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein
• 2021: the January 6 attacks on the US capital in Washington
• 2021: population of the world estimated to be 7.9 billion people
• I’m old enough to have had thirteen prime ministers: Mackenzie King, 1935-48; Louis St. Laurent 1948-57 (no, I don’t remember much of them); John Diefenbaker 1957-63; Lester Pearson 1963-68; Pierre Trudeau 1968-79; 1980-84; Joe Clark 1979-80; John Turner 1984; Brian Mulroney 1984-93; Kim Campbell 1993; Jean Chretien 1993-2003; Paul Martin 2003-06; Stephen Harper 2006-15; Justin Trudeau 2015-now.

If you think that’s something, try this from someone who was born in 1900: (This was posted by a Jonathan Blaze Harper on Facebook, in June 2020, in the early times of COVID-19.) “For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900. When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million. 

When you’re 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.

When you’re 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million. At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish. At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening. As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. 

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through this. In the history of the world, there has never been a storm that lasted. This too, shall pass.” 

My father had almost a sanguine attitude to the travails he faced during his life; I guess he was used to major disruptions.

Attachment #4: Research bodies and organizations focusing on ageing

Canadian Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, through its Division of Aging and Seniors, work to ensure knowledge and expertise are shared to help seniors stay healthy. Health Canada is proactively conducting research and planning to better understand the needs of Canadian seniors and to ensure that programs and services respond to Canada’s demographic aging. (The Public Health Agency of Canada is part of the federal health portfolio. Its activities focus on preventing disease and injuries, responding to public health threats, promoting good physical and mental health, and providing information to support informed decision making.)

Their Campaigning to Tackle Ageism report has been produced as part of the Global Campaign to Combat Ageism to inspire and support the development of future campaigns that can help change the narrative around ageing and older adults. It presents an overview of current practice as well as suggestions for developing and implementing future campaigns at the local, national and regional levels. These suggestions revolve around five key themes: using research, fostering community engagement, planning strategically, implementing key activities and communicating effectively.

Active Aging Canada: a national not-for-profit organization committed to promoting healthy aging among older Canadian adults. In 1993, three groups dedicated to advancing active living for older adults – the National Walking Campaign, Active Living and Older Adults Blueprint Implementation Committee, and the Secretariat for Fitness in the Third Age – met to plan the merger of their organizations. Their interest was in implementing “Move through the Years: A Blueprint for Action” and in effectively promoting active living for older adults.

Their initiative led to the coming together, in 1995, of several organizations with an interest in health, aging, physical activity and the creation of healthy environments. Each was committed to promoting a culture and environment that motivated older Canadians to include physical activity as an essential part of daily living. Together, they tapped into a synergy created from a recognition of both commonalities and individual strengths. 

What emerged was a unique collaborative partnership – the Active Living Coordinating Centre for Older Adults (ALCCOA). In 1997 the Coordinating Centre evolved into a Coalition to better reflect their structure and purpose. In April 1998, the Roundtable Members met in Toronto to reaffirm their commitment to ALCOA. Several new organizations were invited to participate in the strategic planning of ALCOA and our networks broadened. In 1999, ALCOA held its first official Annual General Meeting and incorporated federally. 

In 2016 the Board of Directors approved the new name, vision, mission, vision and by-laws. Vision: Healthy living for life; Mission: Support lifelong healthy active aging of adult Canadians through participation, education, research, and promotion. The definition of “active living” is the same as that of the World Health Organization (WHO): “A way of life in which physical, social, mental, emotional and spiritual activities are valued and are integrated into daily living.”

The GERAS Centre for Aging Research: is part of Hamilton Health sciences and affiliated with McMaster University. Their mission is to make life better for older adults by bringing the best research to the frontlines of care as quickly as possible. Their primary research focus is to lead in research and innovation in the Geriatric 5Ms: mind, mobility, medications, multi-complexity by building a framework of what matters most for older adults.

Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging (CCAA): is a unique, national research and education centre within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western. It promotes physical activity and well-being for older adults through a combination of basic and applied research, education, and community-based exercise programs. Its education and leadership training programs instruct thousands of individuals across Canada in standard, evidence-based practices to enhance the functional fitness of older adults at every level of mobility. Established in 1989, the CCAA is Western’s longest-running research centre.Their mission is to “develop, encourage and promote an active, healthy lifestyle for Canadian adults that will enhance the dignity of the aging process”.

Trent University, Peterborough, there is a strong focus on aging and seniors care:

-the Trent Centre for Aging & Society was created. Its vision is to be an “international leader in interdisciplinary aging studies that seeks to celebrate aging, understand diverse experiences of aging, and challenge ageist practices in our communities and culture.” It is home to two Canada Research Chairs as well a diverse range of partners (such as faculty and students from different faculties plus municipal, health care and community sectors)

– Trent announced early in 2021 plans for a University-Integrated Seniors Village (which will be anchored by people-Care’s new, not-for-profit 224 bed long-term-care home located on the Symons Campus). Note: more than 2,500 older residents in the Peterborough region are waiting several years for a long-term-care bed

-this seniors’s village involves a multi-decade research and teaching agreement with peopleCare that will advance promising practices in long-term care as well as enhancing quality of life for local seniors and providing experiential learning for Trent students (including new graduate programs)

-the peopleCare Group is a private company; CEO and third generation owner is Brent Gingerich

-the partnership between peopleCare is already creating opportunities for faculty and students at the Trent/Fleming School of Nursing

-this is all part of the Trent Lands and Nature Area Plan

-in 2018, Trent became the third Canadian institution, and the first in Ontario, to join the global network of age-friendly universities

The National Institute on Ageing is a Ryerson University think tank focused on the realities of Canada’s ageing population. Their mission is to enhance successful ageing across the life course and to make Canada the best place to grow up and grow old. They promote themselves as Canada’s only think tank dedicated to policy solutions for an ageing population. They work at the intersections of healthcare, financial security, and social well-being.

Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults aged 65 years and older – developed byThe Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP): An Integration of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and SleepSurveys show that older Canadians want to stay safe and independent in their own homes as long as they can. A lot of factors go into aging in place successfully. They include where your home is and your access to transportation, supports, and services. These guidelines are unique because they don’t just focus on a single movement behaviour, but instead look at how all these integrate together. There are three core recommendations to keep in mind:

* Move More – including moderate to vigorous physical activity, but for the first time the guidelines call out that light physical activity, including standing (such that there is an accumulation of at least 150 minutes per week; muscle strengthening activities using major muscle groups at least twice a week; physical activities that challenge balance; several hours of light physical activities, including standing) 

* Reduce Sedentary Time (no more than 3 hours of recreational screen time; breaking up long periods of sitting as often as possible)

* Sleep Well (getting 7 to 8 hours of good-quality sleep on a regular basis, with consistent bed and wake-up times)

Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE): now in Canada; it’s objective is to keep people over 80 out of long term care facilities.

Aging Well – November 2020 report by the COVID-19 Health Policy Working Group: set up by the Queen’s University’s School of Policy Studies. Under the leadership of Prof Don Drummond, early in the COVID-19 pandemic the group was tasked with analyzing its implications for the long-term care dimensions of the health sector. 

US; International

Global Burden of Disease (GBD): this enterprise dates from the early 1990s, when the World Bank commissioned the original GBD study. It endeavours to measure disability and death from a multitude of causes worldwide. It has grown over the past two decades years into an international consortium of more than 3,600 researchers, and its estimates are being updated annually. 

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study of 2017 collected data among adults aged 25 years or older across 195 countries to estimate the effect of individual dietary factor on mortality and quality of life. There were 15 dietary risk factor that met GBD selection criteria for risk factors. Data on disease-specific deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) by age, sex, country, and year were obtained from GBD 2017. 

In 2017, more than half of diet-related deaths and two-thirds of diet-related DALYs were attributable to high intake of sodium, low intake of whole grains and low intake of fruits. Low intake of whole grains was the leading dietary risk factor for DALYs among men and women and the leading dietary risk factor for mortality among women. 

The results were as follows: globally, consumption of nearly all healthy foods and nutrients was suboptimal in 2017. The largest gaps between current and optimal intake were observed for nuts and seeds, and whole grains. The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was far higher than the optimal intake. Similarly, global consumption of processed meat was 90% greater than the optimal amount and sodium intake was far above the optimal levels. The global intake of red meat was 18% greater than the optimal intake.

The Covenant on Demographic Change gathers European public authorities, at local, regional and national level, and other relevant stakeholders, committed to develop environments that support active and healthy ageing, enhance independent living and well-being of older persons, and create a society for all ages.

Global Council on Brain Health (a collaborative from AARP): an independent collaborative, created to provide trusted information on how you can maintain and improve your brain health. “Its clear and dependable guidance is based on the foremost thinking from scientists, doctors, scholars and policy experts around the world. GCBH members debate the latest in brain health science to reach consensus on what works and what doesn’t. Our overriding goal is to help people apply the latest scientific insights to boost their cognitive health and live their best lives.” AARP founded the GCBH in collaboration with Age UK, which is the United Kingdom’s largest charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life. AARP and Age UK are organizations with a large public reach and have strong track records in delivering information to the widest audiences. 

National Institute on Aging (NIA): is one of 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Their mission encompasses basic, translational, and clinical research; training and career support for investigators at all levels; resource allocation; and health communication to a range of audiences. Congress established the NIA in 1974 to lead a national scientific effort to understand the nature of aging in order to promote the health and well-being of older adults. The Institute was subsequently designated as the lead within NIH for research on Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia (AD/ADRD).

Center on Aging at University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, The University of Miami (UM) Miller School of Medicine has renamed the Center on Aging as the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging (CNSA), reflecting a growing emphasis on brain research, diagnostic and clinical services, and educational programs. CNSA will play a key role in supporting the Miller School’s neuroscience pillar, and will foster internal collaborations with the McKnight Brain Institute, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Department of Neurology, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Departments of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine and other UM departments and programs. One of the center’s goals is to expand the role of the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, a statewide consortium funded by the National Institutes of Health that includes UM, the University of Florida, Mount Sinai Medical Center and other universities in Florida.

Middle Age in the United States (MIDUS) Study: has shown that having a sense of purpose is associated with reducing cardiovascular and other causes of mortality. The study focusses on how well Americans are functioning at midlife, and why some experience better health and greater well-being than others. 

AARP: is a US–based interest group focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty.According to the organization, it had more than 38 million members as of 2018.The magazine and bulletin it sends to its members are the two largest-circulation publications in the United States. The organization was originally named the American Association of Retired Persons, but in 1999, it officially changed its name to “AARP” (pronounced one letter at a time), to reflect that its focus was no longer American retirees. AARP no longer requires that members be retired, and there are no longer any age restrictions even for a full membership. AARP launched Life Reimagined in May 2013, calling it a “first-of-its-kind series of online and offline experiences that guide people through life transitions by helping them discover new possibilities and connect with a community of people pursuing similar passions and goals”.In 1979, AARP introduced the nation’s firstdriver safety course geared towards older adults. Bill Gates and AARP have invested in the Dementia Discovery Fund (the world’s largest venture fund focussed entirely on discovering and developing therapies for dementia.) 

(Susan Jacoby in her book Never Say Die suggests they mirror the conflicted attitudes we have about old age; on the one hand there is the expanding population of old needy people facing cuts in Medicare and Social Security as a way of reducing the federal deficit vs the endlessly cheerful portraits in their media strategy of independent young old people who don’t look like they need anything from anyone.)

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People (GAROP) and the Convention on the Rights of Older Persons (CROP)

HelpAge International is the secretariat to a global network of organizations (under the World Health Organization) promoting the right of all older people to lead dignified, healthy and secure lives. Their vision is a world in which all older people can lead dignified, healthy and secure lives. Their missionis to promote the wellbeing and inclusion of older women and men, and reduce poverty and discrimination in later life. They work with older women and men in low and middle-income countries for better services and policies, and for changes in the behaviours and attitudes of individuals and societies towards old age.

Attachment #5: Old Age Security In Canada

The old-age pension is a government initiative to help Canadians avoid poverty in retirement. It has changed from a strictly anti-poverty measure, that often humiliated the elderly, into an accepted, mainstream aspect of post-work life. Some fear the system is unsustainable and heading toward bankruptcy, while others argue it is financially sound.

The Old Age Security Act: the first old-age pension was enacted by the federal parliament in 1927. It was jointly financed by federal and provincial governments but administered by the provinces, as pensions were considered a provincial constitutional responsibility at that time. The plan paid up to $20 per month, depending on other income and assets, and was available to British subjects 70 years of age and older with 20 years of residence in Canada. A strict means test was applied and was widely regarded as humiliating.

In 1951, following an amendment to the British North America Act to permit the federal government to operate a pension plan, the Canadian Parliament passed the Old Age Security Act, which provided a universal pension, or demogrant, of $40 per month financed and administered by the federal government. All Canadians aged 70 and over who could meet the more liberal residence requirements were eligible, regardless of their other income or assets. Pension payments began in 1952 and were taxable.

The Canada Pension Plan: the universal Old Age Security pension had been raised to $75 per month by 1964, but it was widely acknowledged as inadequate. To alleviate this problem over the longer term, the federal government (after a further amendment to the BNA Act) introduced the Canada Pension Plan in 1965, while Québec launched its own scheme, the Quebec Pension Plan, similar in all significant aspects to the CPP.

The Guaranteed Income Supplement: as the C/QPP would not pay full retirement benefits for 10 years, and to assist those low-income seniors already retired, the federal government, through an amendment to the Old Age Security Act, introduced a tax-free, income-tested supplement beginning in 1967. It was available to pensioners in receipt of the Old Age Security Pension, but who had little or no other income. This supplement was applied for every year at tax-filing time and was free of any social stigma. For every $2 of income over and above the OAS pension, the supplement was reduced by $1. At the same time, the age of eligibility for universal OAS pension was lowered over five years from age 70 to age 65, thus eliminating the means and needs test from the federal pension system.

Although the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) was initially seen as a transitional program to be phased out when the C/QPP began paying full benefits in 1976, it was found that a sizable portion of C/QPP beneficiaries qualified for less than a maximum pension. This, coupled with the fact that only a minority of workers had an employer-sponsored pension, meant that the GIS remained a critical element in reducing the incidence of poverty among the elderly. Thus the program was maintained, increased in value and indexed quarterly to the cost of living.

Spouse’s Allowance (1975, 1985): In 1975 the OAS/GIS was improved for a small proportion of the population by a Spouse’s Allowance (SPA), which provided an income-tested supplement to low-income elderly couples where only one person receives the OAS/GIS and the other is between 60 and 64 years of age. In 1985 the program was extended to low-income widows and widowers between the ages of 60 and 64 whose spouses had been recipients of OAS/GIS.

Debating Pension Reform: old-age pensions became a topic of ongoing national concern starting in the mid-1970s, chiefly because of high inflation rates and their effect on fixed incomes. A federal Green Paper (1982) identified the two goals of the Canadian pension system as ensuring elderly persons a minimum income (the anti-poverty objective) and maintaining a reasonable relationship between the individual’s income before and following retirement (the income-replacement objective). The universal OAS pension, together with the income-tested GIS and SPA programs, was designed to meet the anti-poverty objective; income replacement was to be met by the Canada/Québec Pension Plan, plus employer-sponsored pensions and private, individual savings (the latter encouraged by special concessions in the tax system).

While there was general agreement on the need for pension reform, there was no consensus on the direction reform should take. The business community, the private pension industry and the province of Ontario wanted improvements to come mostly from the private sector. The opposing view was that the public pension system should be improved and expanded, particularly the earnings-replacement ratio of 25%. Implicit in this approach was the belief that the 14,000 private pension plans then in existence were, in the words of a Special Senate Committee Report (1979) “grossly inadequate” in coverage, portability, adequacy of pension benefits and survivors’ benefits, and protection against inflation. A public sector approach was advocated by labour unions, women’s groups, the provinces of Québec and Saskatchewan and welfare groups. 

Despite nearly a decade of debate, reports and national conferences, very little substantive change occurred. Some minor improvements in the GIS program and the C/QPP were made and the federal and provincial governments attempted to improve the standards of private pensions, with limited success.

Beginning in 1985, spurred on by their interest in debt and deficit reduction, the federal Conservative government proposed a partial indexing of the OAS benefit to the inflation rate in excess of 3 per cent. The attempt created such a political backlash that the idea was dropped but was successfully carried out against another universal program, family allowances.

Federal policy toward old age pensions at this time appeared to be moving in the direction of limiting the public pension system to the anti-poverty objective; that is, assuring a basic minimum of retirement income, while leaving the income-replacement objective to the private market and to individual responsibility.

RRSPs: in 1957 the federal government introduced changes to the Income Tax Act to encourage self-employed Canadians to provide for their own retirement. Money placed in a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) account, as well as investment earnings on the money, are tax-deferred until withdrawn on retirement or earlier. Self-employed professionals were the initial principal beneficiaries of this scheme. In 1973 the program was extended to all Canadians, particularly those without an employer-sponsored pension plan. Although open to all Canadians, the preponderance of funds in RRSP accounts are held by upper-middle class and wealthy Canadians, as they are most likely to have money to invest when all other expenses are paid.

Reform Attempts in the 1990s: when the Liberals formed the government in 1993, they also confronted the need to reduce the federal debt and deficit. The government argued that because of the aging of the Canadian population the number of seniors would more than double in Canada by 2030. Therefore some adjustment in pension arrangements was needed if the system was to remain financially viable. The key according to the government was to target the benefits of those most in need.

In the 1996 Budget Speech the government announced that the OAS/GIS, and two tax credits for seniors, would end in 2001 and rolled into a monthly tax-free payment to be called the Seniors Benefit. Under this new program the government said the vast majority of seniors would be as well or better off— that 75 per cent of single seniors and couples would receive the same or higher benefits, and nine out of 10 single senior women would be better off. Furthermore, Canadians aged 60 and over and those already on pensions would have the option of staying with the current system or choosing the Seniors Benefit. This proposal never materialized.

In the 1997 budget, the government announced that it would introduce income testing, which would result in increased benefits to seniors who qualified and would claw back benefits for those who exceeded the annual income level. This met with considerable opposition from the business community, who deal with private pension plans. They argued that the proposed plan would penalize those who contributed to private pensions. Again the proposed changes were not implemented. By 2013, OAS/GIS support continued for seniors.

Changes to the Canada/Quebec Pension Plan: every five years the federal and provincial governments review the operations of the C/QPP. During the 1990s the CPP was the subject of much gloomy speculation. The aging of the Canadian population, the unexpected increase in disability pensions and the declining ratio of workers to retired persons meant to some observers, notably those associated with the private pension industry, that the CPP was headed for bankruptcy. These observers urged that benefits be reduced, that the age of qualification be raised from 65 to 67 and that the wage-replacement ratio, set at a barely adequate 25 per cent (and only if the worker has a company pension plan to supplement the CPP) be reduced to 22.5%. Again, these proposed changes did not materialize.

In the 2012 federal budget, the Conservative government introduced plans to gradually raise the retirement age for the OAS and GIS from 65 to 67. The change is scheduled to roll out between 2023 and 2029. Anyone born in 1963 or later will be able to receive these benefits starting at age 67.

The government also dealt with budget concerns relating to pension funding by increasing pension contributions, reducing the Death Benefit, and making it more difficult to obtain the Disability Pension. There were others who argued that the talk of bankruptcy was nonsense and was put forward by people with either a political or financial axe to grind, and that contributions would rise as they were predicted to do from the outset. All money contributed to the C/QPP is placed into a fund. At one time, provinces were allowed to borrow this money at a modest interest rate. Recent federal legislation allows for a portion of this money to be invested on the stock market in hopes of increasing the fund. It remains to be seen how successful this investment strategy will be. (Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia)