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Think back to 2014. That’s when Loblaw Companies (Loblaws, President’s Choice) stunned the food industry with the purchase of Shoppers Drug Mart. Why the heck would a super market chain want to get into the pharmacy business? Well, as we all know now when we stroll the isles of Shoppers food is a natural fit as with pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. In fact, when we look back we realize that supermarkets had been on the edges of health convenience products in stocking products like toothpaste and aspirins in their stores for some time. Loblaws had just taken it to the next level by integrating convenience level food shopping with pharmaceuticals. 
 
Loblaws has now decided to take a big step up the health services ladder. It’s made a multi-million-dollar purchase of Lifemark, a health services company. It operates holistic stand-alone health care clinics that provide physiotherapy, massage therapy, occupational therapy, chiropractic and mental health therapy along with a range of ancillary services.  The plan is to create a national network of healthcare professionals who are connected to patients through Loblaw’s mobile app, PC Health — named after the retailer’s in-store brand, President’s Choice.
 
This just announced step shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact, there may well be plans to take yet another step or two up the health services ladder. Yes, we do need doctors and nurses. However, the Canadian public health care system is doctor driven rather than being holistically health care focused. There is a long and convoluted history of how doctors and hospitals became the primary players in publicly funded Canadian health care. It evolved in an era when the health paradigm was all about caring for physically ill people with a delivery system dominated by doctors, nurses and hospitals supported by a profitable private sector pharmaceutical industry.
 
Contemporary society is now embracing a new paradigm that views health as holistic with a focus on physical, mental and emotional wellness. The politics of public health care funding with its ongoing tug of war between the federal and provincial governments has created a stalemate. Public health care is stuck with physician and hospital costs ballooning in a futile effort to restrict health care and cut costs. The horrendous COVID 19 fallout with so many deaths attributed to aging patients in hospitals and nursing homes has laid bare the deficiencies of the outdated public health care system. Every New Brunswicker is now experiencing the after effects of this deficiency with difficulties in access primary health care from doctors and hospitals. 
 
The Loblaw purchase is an example of how the private sector is stepping into the public health care void coming to the rescue. There are 22 self-regulated health professions in New Brunswick. Chiropractors, masseurs, physiotherapists, prominent among these holistic health practitioners, are emerging are making their presence known. The Province of New Brunswick is increasing the number of nurse practitioner places in its university programs. Look for an innovative solution  to the doctor shortage in New Brunswick communities with Loblaws taking the lead in setting up holistic heath care clinics. 

  

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Newfoundland/Labrador (NFL) Tourism spins a tale that tells inquiring tourists looking for a special place to visit to come to St. John’s and experience what life is like in Canada’s oldest city. I’ve been there and done it. It was enjoyable.  However, using Maritime talk, it’s small potatoes in comparison to living in what’s British North America’s first true city in Canada’s colonial era. Saint John New Brunswick was incorporated as a city in 1785 by the United Empire Loyalists (UEL) upon landing on its shores as proud British patriates in the aftermath of the American revolution.
 
St. John’s, and as Saint John natives will tactfully remind you never to put “St.” in front of John or an “’s” at the tail end, was still an out-port fishing colony in 1785 when the (UEL) landed on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. Now, these UEL were not ordinary folk. They were representative of the upper crust of what are commonly referred to as the “Boston States” and counted among their numbers graduates of Harvard, Yale and Princeton (the Ivey Leagues) as well as the famed barristers from the historic Inns of Court in London. The UEL were determined to make their mark on their new home and leave a legacy that would remind all who came after them of what thy had to gain by following their lead and making the historic harbour on the Bay of Fundy their home.
 
And they have left a legacy that in the pre COVID tourist season was scheduled to attract in excess of 90 cruise ships and an estimated 200,000 visitors. Of course, they do come to get a first- hand up close look at a natural wonder as the highest tides in the world on the Bay of Fundy butt up against the mouth of the Saint John River, reputed to be the second longest river in North America next to the Mississippi, and reverse the flow of the fresh water tide twice a day. But for those who live in Saint John they’re also the beneficiaries of being blessed with being happy since its been well documented that “people who live next door to the ocean report being happier than those who don’t”
 
A must stop for tourists is the historic Saint John City Market. It’s the oldest continuously operating market in Canada. For those who live in Saint John they actually get to shop for food and have bite to eat in this unique historic emporium. Both tourists and residents can then stroll through the historic King’s Square and wander over to walk through the historic Loyalist Cemetery. In your wandering about uptown you’ll notice two things. Although there are historic sites such as Fort Howe, Martello Tower and Loyalist House that give you a glimpse of the Loyalist city in the Loyalist era, there is a noticeable absence of historic Loyalist structures.
 
The “Great Fire of 1877” destroyed an estimated 80% of the city. But for those who want to live in a city with replete with Victorian and Edwardian brick and stone residences and business that are on par with what you admire as a tourist when you wander the streets of Beacon Hill in Boston and Upper Manhattan in New York you live that life experience in uptown Saint John. Saint John was a major centre of commerce in the Victorian era and one of the top three shipbuilding and lumber export centres in British North America. The city was rebuilt with those grand brick and stone buildings that are testament to the wealth of that era.
 
The rich and famous snatch up these stone and brick edifices as soon as they come on the market in Boston and New York. Just think! You could be doing just what they’re doing an affordable price and participating in active community living in Saint John.

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Life satisfaction is strongly influenced by location. People who live in small towns are generally happier than people who live in big cities. People who live next door to the ocean report being happier than those who don’t.[1]
 
This isn’t just me talking. It’s the results of a life satisfaction survey of more than 1,000 North American adults. I wasn’t a participant in the survey but can certainly confirm the validity of the findings. I grew up living that life in Saint John New Brunswick on the Bay of Fundy. I’m a “Bay Boy”.
 
Saint John isn’t a small town. It’s a city comprised of anchors (pocket communities) that are like bundles of small towns. In my youth those anchors were neighbourhoods the foundation of which were parishes. Your parish was the root source of an active community. You knew everyone and all about everyone in your parish and they knew all about you. Yes, there was gossip and not all gossip was good gossip. However, more importantly your parishioners cared for you and about you. That made you feel good about yourself and those around you. You were happy.
 
Now for the value add. Saint John is the Bay of Fundy city. Fundy has the most powerful and highest tides in the world with a 50 rise and fall every day. As a boy I got to witness the ebb and flow of those tides every day. You would always know when the tides were rushing in or out because of the wind. And of course, the wind ushered fog in and out. When the fog was in you missed the sun. However, when the sun broke through those clouds you realized just how good it felt to be enveloped in sunlight.
 
The ocean has a calming presence in between the tidal ebbs and flows. You can feel it in the air. When the tidal flow is changing you can sense the energy. You appreciate that there is a powerful force in the earth that you must respect.
 
All of this is subliminal which is what makes you happy. You’re having an up close experience with the changing energy of the earth every day.
 
I decided to move on from Saint John and pursue a professional career as a law professor in Toronto. However, once you experience life on the shores of the Bay of Fundy you’ll always have a yearning to live by the ocean. I did the next best thing by living in downtown Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario, one of the great lakes. My home was in the renowned village community of St. Lawrence Market; small town living on the edge of an urban megalopolis.
 
Just like so many east coasters I never forgot my love of small- town active community living on the ocean. When the time was right I came home. No way was I going to miss the opportunity to reconnect with ocean front living in a small town. My wife and I now call historic Saint Andrews by the Sea our home. We could have chosen a number of the small fishing communities strewn along the bay. An increasing number of families of all age ranges fed up with urban congestion and the exorbitant cost of living   are opting for affordable small- town active community living in New Brunswick. Pocket stand- alone sea coast communities within an easy commute to Saint John such as Saint Andrews and island life on Deer Island or even Grand Manan, the latter being a world- famous bird migration way station that draws birders from around the world every spring are on the radar screens. For those wanting a unique multi-cultural life experience there’s the Acadian small- town stand- alone pocket communities of  Cocagne an easy commute to Moncton and , Tracadie, Caraquet, Shippegan and Lameque on the Northumberland Strait an easy commute to Bathurst.
 
So much to choose from.


[1] Charles Montgomery, Happy Cities, Toronto, Doubleday, (2013) at P.35

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I’m a boomer. I followed the traditional route of many lads born and brought up in Saint John, New Brunswick and moved to Toronto, a bustling urban centre of four million, to embark on a professional career. It was the smart thing to do in that era. I became a college law professor. It was a tenured position in a unionized environment with a guaranteed cost of living adjustment, extended health care and a generous defined pension benefit plan. My wife and I bought a condominium at a very attractive price in the heart of downtown Toronto on the waterfront at historic St. Lawrence Market and “lived life to the fullest”.
 
That was way back then. Eleven years ago, the college offered me a very generous early retirement package with health benefits that was too good to refuse. It was also a very good deal for the college. My replacements were two lawyers hired on an hourly contract basis with no benefits or participation in a pension plan. It marked the beginning of the “now generation” for millennials entering into professional college teaching careers in an emergent “gig” economy.
 
We decided to sell our downtown condo. The deposit the couple put down for the condo purchase was as much as we had paid for full ownership back then. But this was now. However, their salaries hadn’t quadrupled and both them and us were aware that paying for a downtown lifestyle was going to be a financial stretch that little room for building a nest a savings nest egg for retirement.
 
We relocated to a 55+ active retirement community in Guelph, an attractive university town, on the edge of what is now the Greater Toronto Hamilton area (GTHA) with a population that was in the process of ballooning to seven million with congested multi-lane highways. We had a wonderful early active retirement life in our 55+ community. However, at age 70 we decided that it was time to “come home” and embrace intergenerational active community living in a small town. We put our condo up for sale at double the price we paid for it. Not surprisingly, in the frenzied property market in the GTHA, we were presented with an offer we couldn’t refuse on the first day.
 However, the couple who purchased it were well beyond the 55+ gen x/ millennial age category. “Freedom 55” is dream wish in the increasingly congested GTHA for millennials and genx struggling to stay alive, never mind thrive, in the emergent “gig” economy.
 
 They were boomers in 70+age category and representative of the cohort who had bought in at age 55 twenty years ago but were now actively aging as a new generation of 70+ active retirees. A high end 55+ active retirement community was beyond the price range of millennials. Buying in was now reserved for well healed people like us (PLUs).  Like me, the husband had migrated to Toronto from an east coast town 50 years ago to get started on a stable long-term management career in an established company gravitating to a senior position that had a generous defined benefit pension program. That, along with the sale of a home they had purchased back then but sold now in a skyrocketing real estate market enabled them to embrace a quality active retirement lifestyle.
 
Both my wife and I had always been enthralled with historic Saint Andrews by the Sea on the Bay of Fundy. It’s an eclectic small town intergenerational active community.  It’s a convenient drive into Saint John to visit family. We’ve decided to build a customized modular home with a stand- alone guest suite for visits by family and friends and stained -glass studio for my wife along with space for an activities/games room. Should we require personalized care in the future the guest suite can accommodate an in-house care giver. Compared to the cost of living in the GTHA it was all very affordable.
 
By the way, if we want to have an Ontario chat all we need to do is knock on the door of several of our neighbours. Like my wife and I they’ve come home after pursuing successful professional careers in Ontario to embrace that very special culture of active community living in a small town with its walkable main street hub and family operated businesses. And it’s very easy to do since only family owned businesses can operate in the town hub.  
 
What I’ve just recounted is nothing new. You’re probably aware of this from clicking into social media sites. If you’re a genx/ millennial this is a dream that’s years down the road from being pursued, or so you hope. Moreover, if you live in congested urban centre the cost and stress of living in that environment is just not going to enable you to transition into active retirement living in an idyllic intergenerational small town down the road when the time comes if it ever does.
 
And you’re probably right which is why you should look at making the transition to affordable small-town active community living now. It can be done and is being done by an increasing number of millennials/genx. Here are two quick case studies.
 
Small town merchants invariably like to chat you up when you’re in their store. One day while in the liquor store a manager, a millennial, told me about how enjoyable life was since she had relocated to Saint Andrews from Vancouver. She had been transferred from the east coast to Vancouver by a national retailer to be a regional manager. It was a good job but the cost and pace of living made she and her spouse realize that congested urban living was the source of constant stress in their lives. They relocated to Saint Andrews where a stress-free job with less money went a much longer way in this small east coast town enabling them to buy an affordable family home and support a comfortable standard of living. She had got out in time to start “living life to the fullest”.
 
 Small east coast towns have aging populations. Down the street a millennial husband and wife team who had migrated from an east coast small town to the oil patch in Alberta had scrapped together enough money to relocate to Saint Andrews to take over a family restaurant. This was a venture that would have required an investment of big money in a big city but was doable with a nest egg in a small town. It was dream come true time for them.
 
Then there’s the construction team that’s assembling our modular home. These are all, relatively speaking, young men with skilled trade qualifications who had for one reason of another decided to eschew the lure of big city life and earn good money and lead an active life in a small-town environment. The message here is that if you have a skilled trade or professional qualification there’s a market for your talent in small towns.
 
As I stroll along the main street hub I get a first -hand look at the number of millennials/genx, the next generation of retirees, getting a head start on intergenerational active community living by relocating to small east coast towns now. And their numbers are growing. Why not join those in the know?

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 Governmental and private sector policy and planning initially subscribed to and continues to blindly adhere to the architecture of the post- World War II industrial society three generation life cycle mode. Youth/education, career and retirement represents the three generations. Modernized education   produced second generation of career ready adults by 20-22 years of age. Secure long- term careers in a stable socio- economic environment facilitated creation of a solid middle class with secure long- term jobs who were expected to become financially independent. At age 65 the career cycle ended. Breadwinners transitioned into a third generation of complacent retirees; the “aged”. The retirement cycle was looked at as being short term, 65 to 75 years of age, populated by physically and mentally aging inactive retirees, and accorded afterthought status in the generational policy and planning and process.
 
A paradigm shift has taken place. The Post World War II industrial society has undergone a massive transformation to a technology driven knowledge- based service economy that has rendered the status quo three generation life cycle model obsolete. Life expectancy is now projected to extend well beyond 75 years to 85-95 years. Health is the new wealth that is enabling people to live active lives for the duration.
 
Life is an aging process. Aging is now the best fit methodology to utilize as the architecture for governmental and private sector policy and planning. A three- stage aging life cycle model provides the flexibility to articulate an aging process that’s commensurate with a contemporary society in which adjustments and modifications to timelines that reflect what are recognized as an ongoing series of necessary shifts are now the new normal.
 
The first stage encompasses youth/maturation; the “YOM” age.  It replaces what’s labeled as the “Z” cohort in obsolete generation cycle nomenclature. It’s the requisite starting point in a society and social order where the status quo has been replaced by constant change. This is necessitating the reinvention of education to integrate in person education with on line learning to acquire the electronic (E) competency to grapple with the Internet of things (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) along with the socialization through the self-management of social media as an enabler. Embracing what is appreciated and applauded as success through a series and variations of first attempts at learning (FAIL) in an environment of constant change is the building block core to maturity. The new age “YOM” stage of youth starts at birth and can be expected to last until the maturation process reaches completion at 30 years of age.
 
The second stage encompasses the work and personal life being experienced by mature adults who are identified as generation (X) and generation (Y), the latter labeled as the “millennials”. These are the siblings of the “boomers”. Their fore-bearers haven’t bequeathed them comfortable careers with secure long- term jobs. They’ve inherited a sophisticated “GIG” economy and are confronting the end of work in a conventional career context. Generation (X) and millennials are aware that their work life will consist of an eclectic array of jobs and assignments that will require an ongoing upgrading of knowledge and skills. The combination of increased health and the need to self-manage their wealth to afford a comfortable long- term life may well necessitate participating in the labour market beyond the second stage an into the third stage.  They’re endeavouring to replace the drive to succeed that dominated their boomer parents’ careers with a work-life balance. Moreover, they appreciate the urgency of adapting their professional and personal lives to be compatible with a sustainable environment. The second stage has a variable age that will encompass the 30-65-year period of the aging cycle.
 
The third stage is in the throes of having the terms of reference for the retirement generation being redefined as active retirement to replace the retirement generation by the “boomers”. The beginning of what will the bulk of boomers will turn 65 in 2020. They represent a new age of young/olds (YOLDS). For YOLDS active retirement is about pursuing an encore life in a reinvented lifestyle that encompasses “living life to the fullest”. It has two pathways, “encore careers” and “active retirement/adult community” living, neither of which is mutually exclusive.
 
They’re at the forefront of the nascent “passion economy” that’s opening the door for them to either augment their retirement income with an executive assignment or pursue their dream and contribute to society with an encore career in the bourgeoning social enterprise and non-profit sectors. Active retirement community living enables YOLDS to be vibrant participants in a community focused social network where health is wealth in a holistic context that embraces physical and mental well- being.
 
And what about those complacent retirees, the “aged”, who are in the 75+age category. They’re rejecting the negativity that’s associated with “ageism”. They’re gravitating to a mature elder (MELD) status in an evolving four generation society. They’re embracing third age learning. They’re positioning themselves to be the sages. They are new age grandparents and great-grandparents whose memories and recollections of having lived life to the fullest in through the lifelong aging process in the first and second ages can be utilized to mentor maturing youths and mature adults