Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Economic Health Dept: It would be nice if he had shared with us his concerns about the aging of the population, and the threat it poses to our long-run social and economic health, during the last election, rather than joining in the all-party consensus that there was nothing wrong with Canada that could not be fixed with more and richer promises to the elderly, according to Vancouver Sun. First, a little demographic arithmetic. Over the next 20 years, as each year's litter of baby boomers reaches the traditional retirement age of 65, the proportion of the population drawing a pension will double, from roughly 12 per cent now to 25 per cent and at last, the hidden agenda, and not a moment too soon. Vague, indirect and overseas as it was, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Davos speech was perilously close to a vision statement, of a kind the prime minister has seldom made until now, and will henceforth have to make often. Instead, we are now past the Tories' sixth anniversary in power and the conversation, judging by the shocked reaction to Harpers's speech, has barely begun. Fine: let us at least hope it now continues. Because things are about to become real in a hurry, and it is long since time we did the same. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.