Only on The Walters Post
By George Walers
You know, every so often something crosses my screen that makes me shake my head. This week it was one of those all-caps, exclamation-point-heavy posts about a senator from Quebec calling Canadian seniors the “Greediest Generation.” Supposedly, he even compared Old Age Security to a “milk cow with a million teats.”
Now, at first glance, it’s the kind of thing that can rile a person up. The letter attached to it was fiery, full of passion, and a whole lot of frustration. Folks were sharing it left and right, adding their own “about time someone said it” comments. But here’s the thing — it’s not true.
The post claims it came from “Senator Jeff Smith from Quebec.” While there is a Senator Larry W. Smith representing Quebec, there is no record of a Senator Jeff Smith, nor of anyone in the Canadian Senate making the comments in that viral post. The line about the “greediest generation” wasn’t Canadian at all — it came years back from a U.S. senator talking about Social Security, not our CPP or OAS. As for the letter signed by “Patty Johnstone from Ontario,” that same letter has been floating around for over a decade, sometimes signed by someone from Montana, sometimes from somewhere else. In other words, it’s internet fiction.
But here’s where it gets interesting. The story may be false, yet the anger inside it feels very real. Canadians have been paying into CPP and OAS their whole working lives, watching politicians shift the retirement age, tinker with the rules, and talk about deficits while pensions feel less secure. Seniors carry that weight, and when they see a post like this, the frustration is familiar enough to believe.
That’s how misinformation spreads. It dresses itself in truth’s clothing, hits the nerves we already feel raw, and before long it’s halfway around the country, stirring up more outrage.
I’m not saying folks don’t have a right to be angry — they sure do. What I am saying is we owe it to ourselves to check what’s real before we go swinging our pitchforks. Otherwise, we end up fighting shadows while the real problems slip by unnoticed.
So next time a post like that flashes across your screen, you might want to take a second look. Ask: is this fact, or just a firecracker tossed onto the haystack to see how fast it’ll burn?
Until the next time, keep your minds open and your stories alive. GW
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George Walters | [email protected]
There is so a senator Jeff Smith
from wisconsin yes… but not quebec.
“Thanks for your note! That’s a great point, and it’s actually where a lot of the confusion comes from. You’re right, there is a politician named Jeff Smith who is a senator—but he’s a State Senator in Wisconsin, USA, not Canada. The post we’re talking about is false because it claims a Canadian Senator from Quebec called seniors the ‘greediest generation,’ a quote that actually comes from U.S. Senator Alan Simpson. The letter signed by ‘Patty Johnstone from Ontario’ is also a recycled piece of internet fiction.”
There is actually. He’s on the Canadian Senate website. The rest of that is likely untrue as you’ve stated
Thanks for your follow-up. To clarify, my post refers to the viral claim about “Senator Jeff Smith from Quebec,” which is false. However, there is a real Senator Larry W. Smith from Quebec, but he has no connection to these comments. I’ve updated my post to make this distinction clear, while the rest of the information about the viral letter and the “greediest generation” line remains accurate.