Mr. Speaker, to correct the member, we have not raised the age of eligibility of OAS. We will be doing so in nearly two decades' time. It will be a gradual phase-in.
When the OAS system was designed in the 1960s there were seven retirees for every beneficiary and the average life expectancy was age 65. By the time we raise OAS eligibility to age 67, there will be one beneficiary for every working Canadian. The average age of life expectancy is now 76 and is going higher. Therefore, the Liberal Party's opposition to the modest, gradual increase in the age of eligibility for OAS is a fundamental reflection of how this is no longer the Liberal Party of Paul Martin and how this is no longer a Liberal Party of sound economic management.
Governments across the world, including social democratic governments of the left and centre-left all through Europe, in Japan, and elsewhere, have all moved to increase eligibility ages for such public entitlements analogous to old age security to reflect reality. That life expectancy has grown by well over a decade in every one of those countries and the working taxpaying population has shrunk. Rather than just demagoguing on this issue, it is incumbent on any party that aspires to be government to tell us how they would pay for the entitlements of baby boomers if we do not have an age of eligibility that reflects growing life expectancy 15 and 20 years from now.