Why boomer activism is on the rise, how retirement brought one writer a ‘sense of freedom’ and advice on when to start withdrawing RRSPs

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When Nick De Carlo retired it wasn’t the life of leisure that beckoned, but a return to the frontlines of activism from his younger days. 

“I was involved in the anti-war movement and anti-racist and the civil rights movement in the 60s and 70s. That’s what first got me started,” says Mr. De Carlo, 75. 

Today, the climate crisis has the former union employee’s attention. 

“I felt the need to take up this issue because it’s so urgent,” says Mr. De Carlo, co-chairperson of Ontario-based Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN). “Governments, not just in Canada but around the world, are not taking the type of action that’s needed. There’s going to have to be a movement similar to the movements that happened in the 60s and similar to other movements that have happened since to force that change and we see ourselves as part of that movement.”