ROTHENBURGER – Latest census results carry bad news for young and old alike
(Image: Whitfieldink, Pixabay)
‘WE’RE GETTING OLD,” I said as a friend and I sat in the coffee shop this week.
“Tell me about it,” he said. “It’s scary.”
I had another birthday a few days ago; he had one last month.
“Look at it this way,” I told him. “We have, maybe, 15 years left. That’s not much when you think about it. Just think how fast the last 15 have gone.”
“I know,” he said. “I think about it a lot.”
It’s bad enough looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning and seeing an old person with wrinkles, thin hair and age spots staring back at you. Now we find out we might not have a place to live when the time comes to give up our homes and our driver’s licences.
The day after our conversation, Census Canada released some of the results from the 2021 census that show a shift in demographics towards the aged. Apparently, we Boomers didn’t have enough children, which means there are now too many old folks and not enough young folks to take care of them.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
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If we want our social system, benefits and standards to prevail, we must increase immigration….