We Need a Movement.
It’s become harder to raise a family in Canada, but easier to retire. The generation raising young kids is squeezed for time at home because of the need for dual-earner households, squeezed for income because wages from two-earners have not kept pace with housing prices, and squeezed for services like child care. WTF? Where’s The Family in that?
It’s time to host WTF parties across the country. Why? Because using our political voices doesn’t just mean sending a boring letter to our MLAs and MPs. It can and should be fun.
So let’s rekindle the ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ of the 60s, and adapt it for our generations. The 60s were a time of partying and politics – debating war, civil rights and gender equality. Now its time to mobilize generations under 45 to find our voices, to question why we have a lower standard of living than our parents. It doesn’t need to be this way. But it won’t change until we ask for change.
Get ready to gather, laugh and be merry – and talk about what we can do make a better deal for the generation raising kids. It’s not quite ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ – not yet at least. But let’s make it the beginning… of a fun movement to which all are welcome – parents, grandparents, anyone under 45 and anyone over, provided you are committed to a Canada that works for all generations.
We’re calling all community organizers and party enthusiasts! Who’s willing to host a small dinner of friends in order to start simple a conversation about “Then and Now”.
Or arrange with a cafe or pub to bring in some live music that will attract a larger group. And talk about Generation Squeezed for just 5 minutes.
Or arrange a picnic for families with kids in the park… Or… do what ever seems fun in order to encourage Generation X-it to care less about who is being voted off some island on TV and care more about who is being voted into our provincial and federal legislatures.
All hosts, let us know your plans. We’ll do what we can to attract attention, maybe even the media! Definitely share a summary of your activity, along with photos, by posting a comment on this page.
Any one who creates Think Like a Beaver T-shirts for the event will guarantee attendance by Dr. Kershaw himself!
A competition will begin soon to honour the first WTF party in each province!
At all events, remember to BEAVER for Politicians.
Because Every Adequate Voter Expresses Respect for Politicians generally, even when s/he dislikes the decisions of certain politicians at certain times.
pkershaw
Hey Paul, great stuff but why does the language need to be divisive? I care about young families as much as the next person (as you know ) but feel blamed here as someone born in the 1950s. IN fact I was too busy raising my own five kids to take action against policies that were being being formed… sound familiar?. Lets work together for families, don’t piss off the majority of baby boomers who are just as mad that a massive debt has been created that our children will bear and die earlier because of
Jean
Dear Jean,
You pose an important question. Dividing Canadians along generational lines isn’t my intention at all. Social, economic and environmental trends are already doing this. Instead, my vision is a Canada that Works for All Generations. Check out my previous “Not a Boomer Hater” blog post in which I engage in more detail with the concern that my discussion risks intergenerational division.
FYI: The slow pace of family policy adaptation over Boomers’ adult lives now creates an opportunity to unify the generations. At the individual level, many Boomers now do for their adult children far more than their own parents did for them. That is simply how nurturing, loving Boomer parents are responding to the declining standard of living for Gen Squeeze — their kids — in the absence of social policy adaptation. In some cases, doing more for their adult kids also creates challenges for Boomers’ plans for retirement. So I hope that more and more Boomers come to see a New Deal for Families as an important part of their own retirement security, because it will relieve them of much of the individual expense involved in helping their children and grandchildren to fend off the time, income and service squeeze.
All the best,
Paul