Pretty much every journalist has a list of articles they wish they’d never written. About 45 years ago, I visited Kapuskasing and prepared a story for the CBC about a cold-weather testing facility there. I wrote about how the place helped automobile manufacturers evaluate new vehicle designs under the worst possible conditions. I ended the piece by cheekily explaining that the testing facility hired only women drivers. CBC aired the story. I never heard about any complaints. But even then, women-driver jokes were falling into disfavour. I wince when I remember that one, but am proud I was able to write about Joan Robinson, a 94-year-old Saultite who got her driver’s licence renewed this week while keeping the Service Ontario staff entertained with her razor-sharp sense of humour. There’s no age cut-off for seniors driving in Ontario, but after they turn 80, drivers must renew their licences every two years. The process includes mandatory vision and cognitive screening assessments, and possibly a road test. There are almost 400,000 drivers aged 80 and over in Ontario. I was unable to get a current number of licensed drivers over 90 in time for this story, but found a Toronto Star article that said there were about 700 in 1987.
Pretty much every journalist has a list of articles they wish they’d never written. About 45 years ago, I visited Kapuskasing and prepared a story for the CBC about a cold-weather testing facility there. I wrote about how the place helped automobile manufacturers evaluate new vehicle designs under the worst possible conditions. I ended the piece by cheekily explaining that the testing facility hired only women drivers. CBC aired the story. I never heard about any complaints. But even then, women-driver jokes were falling into disfavour. I wince when I remember that one, but am proud I was able to write about Joan Robinson, a 94-year-old Saultite who got her driver’s licence renewed this week while keeping the Service Ontario staff entertained with her razor-sharp sense of humour. There’s no age cut-off for seniors driving in Ontario, but after they turn 80, drivers must renew their licences every two years. The process includes mandatory vision and cognitive screening assessments, and possibly a road test. There are almost 400,000 drivers aged 80 and over in Ontario. I was unable to get a current number of licensed drivers over 90 in time for this story, but found a Toronto Star article that said there were about 700 in 1987.