MayDay 2011: Conservatives vs Seniors

Hot on the heels of announcing a ‘family friendly’ platform, Shelly Glover of the Conservative Party of Canada (MP, Saint Boniface, interactive map) declared that at least one senior citizen was past her due date.

What exactly does that mean?

Are seniors no longer productive members of society once they retire?  While Shelly Glover claims the comment was meant to reflect the person’s effectiveness as an MP, there’s a lot of potential for the statement to be misunderstood as ageist.

That said, is this why the Conservative Party of Canada has declared ‘family friendly’ policies (that will perhaps one day take place when they finish destroying the budget) in lieu of needs for seniors?

Looking at the last election, Shelly Glover had about 9% of votes (less than 5,000 in total) over her closest competitor, Raymond Simard.

In this situation, the NDP collected 5,500 votes and the Greens got 2,100 votes.  If you’re Green or NDP in this riding, shifting your vote to the Liberal challenger would send a nice message to Ms. Glover.

(NOTE:  Again, I repeat that I have no affiliation with the Liberal Party or any other registered political party.  I just want to see the Conservatives lose).