The parties offer them sea and world, but what do Quebec seniors really want? The duty asked two voters who together have 189 years of life — and who yearn less for gleaming seniors’ homes than for the right to die with dignity before finding their way there.
Donald Cameron is 100 years old, 10 children and a straight talker that a century of life has not yet blunted. Born under the leadership of Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, he has seen 19 different Prime Ministers pass through the National Assembly and is about to live out his 28are Quebec general elections.
At the other end of the table, Mabel Wagner has had 89 springs and countless friendships with some of the most significant figures in Quebec. His first boss was called Maurice Duplessis. Félix Leclerc, the poet of little happiness, married her best friend. Claude Morin, the former PQ minister, has been a close friend of his since childhood.
The duty meets them in a former Lévis monastery converted into a residence for the elderly. Through the window of the sumptuous dining room, the St. Lawrence flows slowly, like the days that remain in the evening of their lives.
“You know, aging is a series of small bereavements”, sighs Mme Wagner. She would never have thought of ending her life anywhere but at home, but illness decided otherwise five years ago. After a crack in the thoracic aorta and five days of coma, she began her recovery at the Résidences du Précieux-Sang, perched on the cliff facing Old Quebec. Five years later, Mr.me Wagner still resides there.
“I found a family life here. It’s beautiful and it’s not too big. She fears that her health will fail again and pushes her towards the last station before the terminus: the CHSLD. “It scares me,” she said. I don’t want to end there, it’s terrible… It’s sad! »
Mr. Cameron nods. “I’m not interested either. The homes for seniors promised by the CAQ government do not make the idea of ending one’s days there any sweeter.
“I’m not for that at all, it costs way too much for not much!” » laments M.me Wagner. “The government should invest in the residences that already exist before wasting millions on nonsense. »
Donald Cameron doesn’t want to know anything about CHSLDs and other seniors’ homes either. “I had planned for myself a beautiful end of life on my land. My idea was to end my days there,” explains the centenarian. The disease, there too, thwarted his plans. “17 years ago, my wife fell ill… Alzheimer’s. He tried to take care of it for a year and a half, before he lost his temper.
After a career of mixing concrete and business, Mr. Cameron could afford home help – but it was too scarce or inadequate for his needs and those of his wife. His daughters convinced him to go live in residence. Fifteen years later, he remains firmly convinced that this will be his last home. “I don’t want to be a vegetable. I signed my paper: as soon as they [les professionnels de la santé] will tell me that I have an incurable disease, they will fix it for me. »
Mabel Wagner nods. Before investing in seniors’ homes at $800,000 a room, she asks, why not expand access to medical assistance in dying? “The day when I will no longer be able to dress myself, I want to end it. Don’t you think it’s better to die at the time of your choosing than to sit in a wheelchair for five or six months with your mouth hanging open? »
The scenario of its end is already written and rehearsed. “It’s like a play,” says Ms.me Wagner. Die in my bed with my children [auprès de moi]a little foie gras, a little music…” A red and black bag is already waiting at the foot of her wardrobe, ready to go with everything you need for a one-way trip to the hospital.
The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) tabled a bill last spring to authorize early medical assistance in dying, without having time to adopt it before the adjournment of parliamentary proceedings and the start of the election campaign. The proposed expansion was based on cross-party consensus — except for the inclusion of neuromotor disability as an eligible condition.
Health, inflation and arrogance
Other proposals put forward during the campaign found a favorable echo among the two elders interviewed by The duty. All parties want to increase the supply of home care, a measure that could have allowed Mr. Cameron to end his days at home, in accordance with his dream.
Québec solidaire promises to grant an allowance to caregivers, a measure also mentioned by the Parti québécois. The latter, like the Conservative Party, also wants to improve the tax credit provided for natural caregivers. It was high time, believes Mabel Wagner, who had to leave her job for a year at 19 to care for her mother, who was then struck by cancer. “It revolts me a little”, she still laments 70 years later, “to see all that I have done and to realize that I have never had anything for it”.
The cost of living is another issue that concerns them. “It’s terrible,” says Mr.me Wagner. The other day at the grocery store they were selling three oranges for $4.50. Who can afford that? She sees her purchasing power diminish, which forces her to sacrifice the little luxuries she still allows herself.
Independent of wealth, Mr. Cameron does not have to worry about how he will make ends meet. However, he remains sensitive to the more modest means of those around him. “Me, the government gives me nothing. It’s quite the opposite, he comes to get me some. But I also look at what the parties do for those less fortunate than me. »
He gives as an example his friend Jacqueline, who received a check for $ 500, courtesy of the CAQ government. “She says she doesn’t know who to vote for…Who gave you that?” he shouts. The hand that feeds you seems to me that you are trying to give it something. All parties promise to redistribute money to seniors. Do certain measures cause his support for the CAQ to falter? ” Others [partis]they promise you money. [La CAQ], she gives it to you! »
Coming from a time when families were torn between the “blues” and the “reds”, the centenarian does not want to know anything about the new parties or the old ones. ” Have you ever seen [une partie d’]a beautiful big country like Canada to separate to be free? Vote for whoever you want, but never for the Parti Québécois! And the Liberals, he says, need a few terms away from power before they aspire to take it back. “The fruit, certifies the centenary, is not yet ripe! »
Mme Wagner, she loses her Latin when she considers the various promises made during the campaign. “The parties each make their offer, and at some point, it becomes almost confusing. We realize that at our age, we are a little slower. She voted for the party that she says is “going to spoil her a bit.” Is it the Liberal Party, which promises to send a check for $2,000 to people aged 70 and over? “It’s shimmering [sic], and that might help us a bit. But the Liberal Party, it’s at the bottom of the line shot not bad,” she adds. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon impressed her during the debates, but his sovereignist mantra pushes her away. “He didn’t disparage too much [ses opposants] and he presented his project well. But I don’t want to part [du Canada]and I don’t want my children [s’en] separate them either. »
Her choice therefore also goes to the CAQ, despite the “arrogance” she deplores in the outgoing Prime Minister. “At least he has ministers who look good,” she explains. And he handled the pandemic well. If we hadn’t had measures to protect ourselves, we might all have died. »
Donald Cameron takes out a mask buried in his shirt pocket. “Me, I found it wonderful,” he says of the management of the COVID-19 crisis. The residence of our two interlocutors has experienced cases and confinements, but neither would change one iota the way in which François Legault has managed the pandemic. And for them, it is obviously the decisive electoral question.