Solberg: "Bit of Keystone Kops" politics from Harper on OAS changes

In Davos, Switzerland last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had this short bit in a much longer speech that touched on many topics:

“We have already taken steps to limit the growth of our health care spending over that period. We must do the same for our retirement income system.  Fortunately, the centerpiece of that system, the Canada Pension Plan, is fully funded, actuarially sound and does not need to be changed. For those elements of the system that are not funded, we will make the changes necessary to ensure sustainability for the next generation while not affecting current recipients.”

That set off a firestorm of political debate back in Canada that continued all week. Yesterday, in an interview with the National Post/PostMedia, Harper conceded that one of the options on the table was raising the eligibility age for Old Age Security benefits from 65 to 67, saying:

“Absolutely, it’s being considered. But what we have to be clear on is that we are not looking at changes that are going to affect people that are currently in retirement or approaching retirement. We’ve been very clear on that.”

If he does move ahead with raising the eligibility, Harper will face some stiff political headwinds, not from the NDP or the Liberals, but from his own supporters! Here, pollster David Coletto of Abacus Data runs through the numbers about how popular Harper’s ideas are with all Canadians and with those Canadians who are Harper’s supporters. (Spoiler alert: Neither group like his plan!):

We followed that interview up with a chat with Sun News contributor Monte Solberg, a former Conservative minister of human resources in charge of the OAS file. He says there has been “a bit of a Keystone Kops” aspect in the way Harper and his ministers have brought this up. Economists like Jack Mintz and Kevin Milligan (among others) took issue with Harper’s conclusion that there will be a problem. “They don’t have those third party advocates backing them up,” Solberg said. But Solberg also believes the Conservatives will try to turn that political messaging around. Watch:

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