Fourth Year Hon. Mention: Seniors' Valence Concerns in Election Campaigns

POLS 4135, Politics of Aging. CD: Thomas Klassen.

Abstract

Andrew Walker’s “Seniors’ Valence Concerns in Election Campaigns” is a first-rate piece of original research. “Valence” can be understood as ‘psychological value,’ or in the vernacular, how important a given issue is to a person or group. By matching the rhetoric and political platforms of the three major federal parties with their actual electoral results between 2006 and 2011, Walker convincingly demonstrates that whatever was motivating seniors’ votes, concerns over Long Term Care, Home Care and/or pensions did not appear to factor strongly in each Party’s electoral outcomes. The Conservatives won a plurality of seats while offering little or nothing for seniors, while more comprehensive seniors’ policy platforms did not play a very visible part in the Liberal or NDP campaigns, and so cannot be said to have influenced many votes.

But in 2015, writes the author, all three Party platforms were more detailed, and the issues of seniors’ care and pension funds were much more prominent when the writ was dropped. The NDP and Liberals both had good platforms, concludes Walker, but since the Liberals became the credible alternative in a change election, NDP promises “rang hollow.”

Walker does well to note that “seniors are diverse in their political allegiances” and that issues like retirement savings are salient for Canadians of all ages, not simply seniors. But he also points out that the demographics of Canada are telling: 2015 saw the valence of these issues increase, as Canada’s population grew older and an increasing percentage of baby boomers retired. This investigation is a superior one, not only because of its careful attention to detail, and its considerable depth of research, but because it remains relevant and timely, with conclusions that federal party strategists would do well to pay heed to.