Last year I put myself on a television news diet. I refused to watch the news because the horror was killing me. My life was infinitely more peaceful and my stress levels were minimal when I eschewed the news. Unfortunately, I have relapsed and now I’m paying the price. The disastrous unfolding of events in the United States and the handover of the Canadian government to an un-elected Prime Minster has me stressed beyond belief and wishing for the days when nothing happened.

How I long for the boring days of having a boring Prime Minister like Stephen Harper whose biggest mystery was whether or not he wore a wig. His one shining claim to fame was the fact that because he was an economist (generally the boringest of the boring) he managed to bring our finances under control. Like Harper, Mark Carney has a financial background as former Governor of both The Bank of Canada and The Bank of England but is that a guarantee that we will be well-governed?

Despite Carney’s presumed ability to read a balance sheet, he is a Liberal and we all know that Liberals are spenders, not savers. Very un-Canadian. Emperor Trudeau Sr. ran up our Visa bill in the sixties and seventies to unheard levels when boomers were still booming, and we’re still trying to pay it off. Silver-spoon-fed Trudeau Jr. seems to have had the same disregard for living within our means. Polièvre may or may not be tough on debt, but he just plain scares me.

I’m now a senior and the issues that concern me these days are not the same as when I was still booming in the seventies, eighties, and even the nineties during The Great Recession. My mortgage is finally paid off. I own my six-year-old vehicle outright. And, because I’m retired, I live on my life savings with no hope of getting tax breaks from “the government” because seniors seem to be invisible.

Our Provincial government under the last few Premiers (both Liberal and Conservative) have shamefully ignored shortcomings in health care and seniors’ needs. The health care shortages and difficulties in getting doctors are obvious to the entire population, but boomers are about to be confronted head-on with major problems in senior care.

We’ve worked our entire lives, most of us without financial assistance from our parents like kids today (the jackpot generation), and we planned for our retirement by saving our money and for the most part living within our means. Starting out, we lived in bedsits or crammed three girls into a one-bedroom apartment, went without a car, and generally did a lot of fancy footwork to keep ourselves afloat while saving for a down-payment on our first home.

Support for seniors is gradually being chipped away. As someone with a spouse who has dementia, I was advised that I should put my name on a waiting list for assisted living immediately, as it could take five to eight years to get proper accommodation when we need it. Private, specialized accommodation could cost in the neighbourhood of $10,000.00 per month in today’s dollars. We would burn through our savings pretty fast at that rate.

As I lie in bed at night I find myself worrying whether Putin’s Russian gang will goose-step across our northern Arctic borders to be met by Trump’s American boots-on-the-ground coming up from our southern border to put Canada in a pincers, demanding to take over our resources and our way of life. Something similar has happened before, not that long ago in Europe and our parents’ generation fought and died to prevent that from ever happening again. Our country is not available for the taking.

I know I shouldn’t watch the news but I can’t help myself. Am I a sadist, a masochist, or just stupid? I don’t think I’m worrying about nothing. Political mismanagement by the leaders of major countries has endangered not only the welfare but the very lives of millions of people, whether at a national level or personal level. It seems the world is being run into the ground by despots and incompetents. We ignore the fallout at our peril.

The Canadian dollar is at an all-time low. Healthcare is inadequate and struggling. We are being manipulated and mismanaged on all levels and we seem helpless to protect ourselves. Much as I hate watching the news, it’s become an addiction that is killing me and ruining my retirement. I know I should just turn it off but I need to be informed so I can take care of us as much as possible under the current conditions and protect what remains of our future.

I am thankful that (at the moment) my home is not being bombed and my life is not in immediate danger, but that could change. I hope whichever government we elect takes a strong lead in getting Canada back on its feet. It’s not just baby boomer seniors who are taking it in the neck—so are young people who cannot afford to buy a home to raise a family. Is that too much to ask?

Many years ago my dad and his friends used to own a little hunting cabin in the woods with no electricity or running water. We used the outhouse, loaded the old wood stove to keep warm and cook with firewood cut on the property, and pulled water from a well. No generators. No conveniences. No television or microwave. No refrigerator, phones, or internet. No bad news reached our ears or eyes. We ate communally and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I’m beginning to think that cabin is looking pretty attractive, especially if we will not be able to get a room in the “home” when we need it.

A few weeks ago I blogged about How I Cope With The U.S. Election Results by treating the entire fiasco as entertainment. That no longer works as the situation is no longer amusing. While the United States is busy putting themselves first to the exclusion of the rest of the world, perhaps we should be doing the same thing. That’s not the ideal world we worked for but it seems to be the direction of the world we have been given or voted for. I find myself longing for a politician with the integrity of Jimmy Carter who told the truth whether we wanted to hear it or not. Politicians now are in the game for their own gain and their words can never be trusted. Sad indeed!

Every generation strives to make life a bit better than the previous generation enjoyed but we seem to being going in reverse. All the bad news these days is very discouraging and I cannot ignore it or we will follow the path of Germany in the 1930s and 40s.  I know I should go on another TV news diet but I’m afraid that the moment I do, that’s when the world will implode and I’ll miss all the fun. Please tell me that we have not reached the end of humanity as we know it.