An encore career. The second act. The new retirement.

Whatever you call it, baby boomers and seniors have been bitten by the entrepreneurship bug.

 As a teenager nearly four decades ago, Malvern Collegiate Institute student council president, Fred Upshaw, started a revolt when his high school imposed mandatory uniforms.

Feeling that the council should have been consulted before making it compulsory for girls and boys to wear blue tunics and grey flannel pants respectively, Upshaw urged students to remain outside their classrooms to show their disapproval.

The students adhered and the school administration backed down.

It is estimated that each year 157,000 Canadians are homeless and 3.2 million Canadians live in poverty and would benefit from housing improvements and low-cost housing.  Despite these alarming figures, Canada is the only G8 country without a national housing strategy.

The federal government has in fact been steadily cutting funding to its federal housing programs at a time when Canadians are dealing with the effects of the 2008 recession and growing income inequality.

by Verena Menec for EvidenceNetwork.ca

Stories abound in the media about how seniors are going to bankrupt the health care system or how the Canadian pension system will collapse under the burden of a growing senior population.

What we don’t hear in the midst of all of these doomsday stories — which are not based in evidence, and are simply wrong — is how seniors contribute to society.

Read more: http://sgnews.ca/2012/09/seniors-still-contribute-more-than-they-take/

In recent years, a number of U.S. employers have been rehiring their retirees to fill scheduling gaps. In theory, employers benefit from retaining experienced workers, while retirees benefit from remaining active and supplementing their income. Although market conditions are very different in the U.S., should Canadian employers consider following this lead?

Read more: http://www.benefitscanada.com/pensions/other-pensions/rehiring-retirees-...