President’s Message Bob Slack CSA President As we all know, Canadian summers don’t last long, that’s one of the reasons we’re snowbirds. Before long, it’s time to start planning our next winter in the sun. Despite the challenges which we faced this past winter with the declining value of the Canadian dollar, Canadian snowbirds continue to winter in their second homes. One of the best ways to prepare is by attending one of our annual Snowbird Lifestyle Presentations. This year, we will be touring throughout Ontario with stops inOrillia, Belleville, Nepean, Burlington, St. Catharines and Sarnia.These annual presentations are very popular and give us an opportunity to meet our members and prospective members, and to provide them with snowbird information and entertainment. As always, these shows are free and open to members and non-members alike, so feel free to bring a friend or neighbour. Please look elsewhere in this edition of themagazine for specific ticket information, dates and times. To all the members who have already renewed their CSA membership, a sincere thank you. It’s hard to believe, but we now havemore than 100,000members. We have come a long way since 1992, when we began with 1092 members. If you have yet to renew your membership, I would urge you to do so. It’s as simple as mailing us your renewal notice, visiting our website (www.snowbirds.org) or picking up the phone and calling the office. Thanks also to all of you who have made donations to our Special Action Fund. The Special Action Fund is a vital resource on which we rely to fund our advocacy activities. Every dollar donated is held in a separate account that is independent of the daily operating budget of the association. We utilize the fund when the CSA does not have time to seek donations, and must engage immediately in government lobbying and consultation. The association is currently accepting applications and resumés frommembers wishing to serve on the CSA board of directors. The new board will be sworn in at the Annual General Meeting in Lakeland, Florida in January 2017. The nominating committee has been approved by the board and will be meeting in August to select a slate of candidates. I would like to wish all applicants the very best of luck. Unfortunately the JOLT Act, which contains our Canadian Retiree Visa, is currently stuck in Congress (along with everything else these days) with 111 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. Of those 111 co-sponsors, 57 are Democrats and 54 are Republicans. Not much is expected to happen on this or, frankly, many other pieces of legislation between now and the congressional elections this November. Our next move is to spend time lobbying congressional representatives immediately following the November elections in the so-called “lame duck” session of Congress. A “lame duck” session of Congress is one that takes place after the election for the next Congress has been held, but before the current Congress has reached the end of its constitutional term. Any meeting of Congress that occurs between a congressional election in November and the following January 3 is considered a lame duck session. The essential idea is that, after the elections, members are either elected or lose their seats. The benefit – particularly among those who have lost – is that the political considerations of getting re-elected are largely absent. This tends to allow more representatives to vote their conscience on pieces of legislation, as opposed to toeing the party line on contentious pieces of legislation in the time which they have left in office. These days in Washington, it seems as if every piece of legislation is considered to be contentious. As always, we will keep you posted regarding our progress. Congratulations to the newly elected premier of Manitoba, The Hon. Brian Pallister. As you can read in Jim Sherb’s Government Relations Report, ourManitobamembers have some ongoing concerns and we look forward tomeeting with the premier and attempting to get these resolved before the next winter snowbird travel season. According to a recent report in the Associated Press, some scientists now believe that people may have migrated south from Alaska, all the way to Florida, some 16,000 years ago. The hypothesis is that many of them may have migrated south for the winters and followed the mastodons back north for the summers, making them the first snowbirds! It’s a shame that golf was still thousands of years away from being invented. Have a great summer. 10 | www.snowbirds.org
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