Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 20, 2003
PM pans forced retirement
Prime Minister Paul Martin says Canadians shouldn’t be forced to retire at age 65.
Six provinces, including Ontario, have laws that state that mandatory retirement is allowed at 65.
In an interview with CBC Radio’s The House, which will be aired next Saturday, Martin, 65 himself, says: “I don’t believe in mandatory retirement. I think that people should be really allowed to work as long as they want to work and as long as they can make a contribution. I think an awful lot of these distinctions just don’t make any sense in today’s world.”
Martin is not the only senior citizen in politics. In fact, he spoke to CBC Radio in the same week that former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, 67, announced that he was returning to active politics to seek his party’s nomination to run in Ottawa Centre.
Broadbent, if he wins that nomination, will be facing off against one of the Prime Minister’s inner circle of long-time advisers, Richard Mahoney, 44, an Ottawa lawyer and former executive assistant to Martin.
“People are individuals, they’ve got different needs, they’ve got different ambitions, they have different skills and they also have different health,” Martin says.
“This is a country with tremendous opportunities … I think that people should be able to do whatever it is they want to do.” (CP)