Canada's Fighting Seniors

M. Annabelle Richardson is head of Twilley Richardson & Associates,
Counselling and Consulting Services, in Perth, Ontario.

With enthusiasm and respect, Canada’s Fighting Seniors presents
example after example of a prescription for healthy seniorhood: keep so
busy bettering the community that you simply have no time to be sick or
die. However, I would dispute Gifford’s claim that this is not a
“how-to” book, for it uses a teaching tool very familiar to this
“retired” educator: presenting a wide selection of successful
models.

Their stories are rich, warm, and inspiring. Gifford’s reports of
individual projects and of the “movement” as a whole detail the
participants’ experiences on a number of levels, from personal to
community. For readers of any age, this book provides a valuable,
carefully linked, and sometimes overwhelming compilation of what
Canadian seniors have accomplished—regionally and nationally, for
needy individuals and for the world community, for themselves and for
future generations.

Gifford writes from a distinctly socialist point of view, unafraid of
expressing his opinions. Nevertheless, the book is far more than a
soapbox. He conveys an understanding of how seniors have worked in
particular contexts, and of how the same methods would or would not be
appropriate in other situations. However, I believe he overestimates his
readers’ political literacy. Although he clearly presents advocacy as
inescapably political and describes how seniors have become educated
through advocacy, he fails to discuss several relevant issues: how
“doing good” becomes political, what “political process” is, and
which factors influence how we know it and whether we choose to use it.

I am grateful to Gifford for dispelling my lack of knowledge about a
significant part of Canadian history, and I value his own personal
story.