House of Commons | Octogenarian deputies who still have the sacred fire

(Ottawa) They are in their eighties and still sit in the House of Commons. “Young people, I was out of breath,” laughs one. “I’m still stirring the cage,” assures the other: the Bloc Louis Plamondon and the liberal Hedy Fry have retained the sacred fire, and the debate on the supposed expiration date of politicians which rages in the United States does not make them sway.

“You can be 80 years old and still be young. You can be 20 years old and still be old,” says Louis Plamondon, continuously popular in his constituency since 1984. “When I ran for the first time, at 41, people said to me: ‘It seems to me that you are a not very young,” laughs the current dean of the House of Commons.

“It all comes down to physical and mental capacity. What compensates when you are 80 years old like me, compared to someone 30 years old who may seem more dynamic, is experience,” continues the one who has every intention of being on the starting line. during the next federal election.

His colleague Hedy Fry, 82, from British Columbia, also plans to run again. “When Jean Chrétien approached me in 1992, I hesitated for a long time. To convince me, he said to me: “What are you going to do if not gardening?” I didn’t want it at the time, and it’s the same thing today,” she says.

“I love what I do,” exclaims the doctor, who fell to Kim Campbell (in 1993).

There is no age limit for sitting in the House of Commons. On the other hand, there is one for nominal positions: judges of the Supreme Court of Canada as well as judges appointed by the federal government must hang up their robes at age 75. The same goes for senators – and that is very good, according to liberal Serge Joyal.

“There is merit in putting an age limit,” argues the former member of the Upper House, who took compulsory retirement in February 2020. Still active in public affairs, he nevertheless emphasizes that since the When this rule came into force in 1965, life expectancy and living conditions were no longer the same.

Reform desired but complicated

South of the border, you can sit until death, in the Supreme Court as in Congress – the senators there, however, are elected, and not appointed as in Canada. We saw senators like Diane Feinstein (who died at age 90 in 2023) hang on, and Mitch McConnell, who will not run again as Republican leader in the Senate, have absences.

“From a legal point of view, there is no age limit in the United States, and even if there were an aspiration to impose one, it is not tomorrow that we will could change that, because it would require an amendment to the Constitution,” explains Julien Tourreille, of the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair at UQAM.

The impacts of the absence of an age limit are felt more in the country of Joe Biden than in Justin Trudeau, notes his colleague Valérie Beaudoin. “The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg [juge de la Cour suprême, disparue en 2020]for example, changed everything in the debate on abortion,” underlines the researcher associated with the same chair.

A vast majority of the American population would like the rules of the game to be changed: according to a study published a few months ago by the Pew Research Center, 79% are in favor of imposing a mandatory retirement age in the case of of elected officials in Washington, and 74% for Supreme Court justices¹.

The debate on age is more damaging for the outgoing president, Joe Biden, 81, than for his Republican rival Donald Trump – who, at 77, is not young either.

The danger, even if it is normal that the “state of health” of the democrat and “his capacity to assume the function” gives rise to legitimate concerns, is that the issue overshadows everything else, adds Julien Tourreille. “But clearly, Joe Biden is capable of being president,” argues the researcher in residence.

“It doesn’t affect me pantout »

This is what Louis Plamondon also believes. “When we analyze his four years in office, the economy is doing extraordinarily better, international relations have become healthier again than under Donald Trump, and he fought COVID-19 well, while the other said to drink alcohol. bleach,” he analyzes.

And then in any case, “ageism is present everywhere in sport, the arts”, and it “has always existed”, philosophizes the deputy for Bécancour–Nicolet–Saurel “We have to live with that. It doesn’t really affect me at all. It’s going well, I like it, I’m continuing,” concludes the chosen one.

From there to saying that it is acceptable and that we can allow ourselves to generalize, there is a step, warns Hedy Fry. “It’s a stereotype, a reason for discrimination. It is suggested that everyone who is in the same category is the same, and that is false! », Launches the member for Vancouver Center with verve.

Gardening still doesn’t interest Hedy Fry.

If necessary, she goes to the florist.

1. Check out the Pew Research Center study