Guardian photo by Mike Carson
Ed: When asked at the SUN meeting, John Eldon was shocked that Seniors are not allowed to apply for the Disability Support Program. “Isn’t that illegal?” he asked. Should senior citizens have to sue the government to get basic human rights?
MIKE CARSON
The Guardian
SUMMERSIDE — Not all seniors are the same and advocates must recognize that to work to improve the lot of all, says John Eldon Green, a former deputy minister and private consultant.
Green was the guest speaker at the annual meeting Wednesday of the Seniors United Network (SUN) addressing the issue of seniors and the political process.
Green said the modern view of seniors is one of retirement, children grown, trips south, discounts, preferred treatment and the ability to maintain their assets if moved to manors.
“The difficulty is are all 20,000 seniors (on P.E.I.) doing as well?” he asked the delegates. “Are you people representative of the 20,000 people who are over 65?”
He said SUN must make certain that their commitment to the betterment of seniors is long-term.
“You have to be careful that this concern of your organization isn’t like the concern we have that everybody gets a turkey at Christmas,” he said. “There are people who get turkeys at Christmas time on Dec. 25 — they’re hungry on Jan. 25 and on Feb. 25 when there is no turkey.”
Green said there has to be a focus on who seniors are and what their differences are.
Know the elite in politics, the political insiders because they have the influence on policies, he said.
“You have to understand what the insiders understand and try to get direction from them,” he said.
“They’re the people who really make a difference as far as elected officials are concerned. You have to know how to use them.”
Government never stops no matter whether a minister is in his or her office or whether they’re on the campaign trail, Green said.
“The government is like a river,” he said. “It continues to flow. The difficulty is the politicians think they’re the river. They’re just getting a ride, carried along by the river.”
He said seniors’ groups should look at commonality with other people “so it doesn’t look like we’re always looking for ourselves.”
A means of getting things done is through political pressure.
“Political pressure to be effective has to be targeted and sustained,” Green said. “You have to keep coming. If you’re single-issue focused and relentless, that troubles people because you’re a pain in the ass and they have to figure out how to get them off their back.”
Green said it is important to focus on one area.
“Government is never going to do 10 things for you,” he said. “They’ll do one thing at a time. You don’t deal with officials except to get information. If you’re coming in on a hot issue and you’re dealing with me, the deputy minister, the worst thing I could do is be caught keeping up the issue. That would get me fired because the deputy’s job is to defuse the issue as much as possible.”
The deputy minister can never say yes, Green said. That is the right of the minister.
Green said when approaching MLAs, seniors should go in groups.
“Don’t meet with an MLA singly, you’re just one person,” he said. “When three people meet with an MLA, there must be an organization here and that bothers them a bit more because organizations have more staying power.”
He said backbenchers can do little to help a group and it is the minister that needs to be addressed.
“Constant pressure constantly applied,” Green said is the best means of getting some action.
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