{"id":771642,"date":"2026-06-30T18:59:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/771642\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:59:25","slug":"analysis-canada-is-getting-old-and-thats-our-biggest-advantage-for-2067","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/771642\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: Canada is getting old \u2014 and that\u2019s our biggest advantage for 2067"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Logo<\/a><\/p>\n

Parminder Raina is Scientific Director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging.\u00a0This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canada will cross the threshold into a \u201csuperaged\u201d society this year, with at least one in five people over 65<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By 2067, when Canada turns 200, older adults will be a far larger share of the population, while growth in the traditional \u201cworking age\u201d group will be modest. This shift is often framed as a looming crisis for health care<\/a> and pension systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is not a crisis. It is evidence that Canadians are living longer, healthier lives, something earlier generations could only imagine.<\/p>\n

As we prepare to celebrate Canada Day, the real question is not whether Canada can afford to age. The question is whether we will seize this moment to build the strongest aging society in the world.<\/p>\n

Aging is a triumph, not a burden<\/p>\n

The first step is to confront ageism head-on. Terms like \u201csilver tsunami<\/a>\u201d suggest an unstoppable wave of destruction. But aging is not a natural disaster; it is the predictable outcome of social progress.<\/p>\n

Countries that are aging the fastest, including Canada, Japan, South Korea and Italy<\/a>, have long life expectancies, high levels of education and robust social protection systems. Population aging, in other words, is a marker of national success, not failure.<\/p>\n

Yet public debate still treats older adults primarily as a cost: hospital beds<\/a>, long-term care spaces<\/a>, income supports.<\/p>\n

This view ignores what many Canadians in their 70s, 80s and 90s actually do every day: They volunteer, provide care to spouses, grandchildren and neighbours, contribute to the labour force and lead community organizations. Large national studies, such as the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging<\/a>, show that many older adults remain active, engaged and resilient well into later life.<\/p>\n

If someone is 65, functional, engaged and happy, why would they want to feel 40? The goal of policy should not be to \u201creverse\u201d aging, but to ensure people of all ages can live well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why communities matter more than hospitals<\/p>\n

Aging does not happen in a clinic or a laboratory. It happens in neighbourhoods and communities shaped by work, housing, transit, caregiving, air quality and income.<\/p>\n

Decades of research<\/a> shows that these social and environmental conditions affect biology itself: They shape patterns of inflammation and chronic disease, and even how quickly cells age through processes such as telomere shortening<\/a>, where the protective covering on chromosomes reduces as cells divide. Two people of the same chronological age can age very differently<\/a> depending on where and how they live.<\/p>\n

This has major implications for Canada\u2019s future. Our health-care system was largely designed in the 1960s<\/a>, when the median age was about 26<\/a> and the focus was short, acute episodes of illness<\/a>. That model is poorly suited to a country where many people live with multiple chronic conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Canada wants to thrive in 2067, we need to rebalance our investments. Hospitals and specialists will always be essential. But we need equally serious investment in social care and community-based services that keep people healthier for longer<\/a> and living at home at a fraction of the cost of institutional care.<\/p>\n

Imagine a Canada where:<\/p>\n

Older adults can remain in their communities, supported affordably and with dignity
\nCities and rural areas alike offer clean air, accessible transit and vibrant community hubs
\nHousing is designed for intergenerational living, not age segregation
\nEmployers treat caregiving responsibilities with the same seriousness as parental leave
\nEvery major policy affecting older adults is tested against real evidence, rather than outdated assumptions about dependency<\/p>\n

None of this is utopian. These are practical design choices.<\/p>\n

Trust as critical infrastructure<\/p>\n

There is, however, one less visible ingredient that will determine whether Canada can become a world leader in aging: trust.<\/p>\n

We need trust to design new models of care, new forms of housing and new income systems that reflect longer lives<\/a>. We need it to share health and social data in ways that protect privacy while enabling research at scale, including large cohorts such as the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging<\/a>. And we need it to rebuild confidence in institutions that many Canadians feel are no longer working for them.<\/p>\n

When trust is low<\/a>, even modest reforms can trigger backlash. But when trust is high, ambitious changes become possible.<\/p>\n

In aging, building trust could enable:<\/p>\n

Caregiver supports<\/a> that reflect the realities of modern families, not the outdated model of a single, stay-at-home carer
\nPublic-health programs tailored to low-income and racialized communities, where the burden of poor health is often highest<\/a>
\nNational partnerships that bring together governments, researchers, industry and community organizations to test new solutions
\nGlobal collaborations that position Canada as a leader in healthy longevity and the \u201clongevity economy\u201d<\/p>\n

Trust is not a soft, secondary concern. It is critical infrastructure of an aging society.<\/p>\n

A different story about Canada\u2019s future<\/p>\n

Demographic change is inevitable; decline is not. We can treat our aging population as a fiscal threat or an opportunity to redesign our communities, systems and expectations for the better. Recent population projections underline how urgent that choice is.<\/p>\n

If we choose the latter, Canada could be known not just for universal health care by 2067, but for something even more ambitious: a society where people of all ages live longer lives of purpose, connection and joy.<\/p>\n

That future will not happen by accident. But it is within our reach.\"The<\/p>\n

Parminder Raina is Scientific Director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging.\u00a0This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parminder Raina is Scientific Director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging.\u00a0This article is republished from The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-771642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}