The political science discipline has been decidedly under-represented in the emergence of Canadian social gerontology over the past two decades. This is rather surprising, considering that political and governmental institutions—always a primary focus of political science attention—have played a critical role in allocating social values toward elderly persons, and that relatively large sums of public money are spent on aging programs. The discipline's relative absence in gerontological studies is explainable partly in terms of forces long at work within political science, and partly on the basis of ones external to it—all of which for some years combined to discourage work on this topic. Very recently, however, the negative influences have weakened to some degree, while new factors of a positive character have entered the picture. As a result, it is possible to offer a guardedly optimistic estimate of the potential for political science to become more involved and more committed than heretofore.

This paper first examines the prevalence of widowhood in Canada from 1956 to 1981. Second, data are presented concerning the probability of remarriage following widowhood and the length of time a person can expect to stay in the widowed state until either remarriage or death. The data indicate that the female is far more likely to be widowed than the male, that the widow is much less likely to remarry than is the widower, and that the widow on the average spends more time in the widowed state than does the widower. Finally, the data show that the number of widows for each widower has increased substantially during the 1956–1981 period.

Competency of witnesses depends upon the accuracy of their memory and their credibility. This paper addresses both of these factors with respect to the elderly. First, a review of the accuracy of the elderly eyewitness in recall and identification of a criminal suspect relative to that of young adults is presented. Secondly, the results of a study testing the perceptions of the legal community and the general public toward the elderly witness are given. And thirdly, the attitudes of the elderly toward police officers, trial judges, crown attorneys, and defense lawyers are discussed. Young adults were found to be seven to 20 per cent more accurate on the average than elderly subjects in recall for crime-related events and in the identification of a suspect. However, results also showed that some elderly subjects are equally as accurate as young adults in the visual identification of a suspect. Police officers, lawyers, probation officers, the general public, and elderly subjects rated the elderly witness relatively high in understandability, activity, potency, and evaluation. These judgements suggest that the credibility of the elderly witness is favorable. Finally, the study showed that elderly subjects perceive trial judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers positively, and they are particularly supportive of the police.

As part of the pre-screening for an exercise stress test and possible entry into a subsequent exercise training programme, 74 members of the University community aged 45–75 were given a full clinical examination. They subsequently responded to the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) and the Physical Activity Readiness (PAR-Q) questionnaires. The exercise stress test was judged as contraindicated in 9 of the 74 subjects on the basis of the clinical examination. Possible uses of the CMI were rated against this criterion. Failure to complete the CMI and/or 2 or more positive responses to section C yielded a sensitivity of 66.7% and a specificity of 86.1%. Excluding subjects with more than 40 responses to section A-M substantially reduced sensitivity (55.5%), with only a small gain of specificity (90.7%). The PAR-Q had a sensitivity of 66.7% and a specificity of 92.5%. It was considered clinically advisable to halt the exercise test in 11 of the 65 subjects who had been initially cleared. Summing medical rejections and aborted tests, the basic use of the CMI showed a sensitivity of 50.0% and a specificity of 90.7%. Excluding subjects with a high response rate, sensitivity was 35.0% and specificity 92.6%. Corresponding figures for the PAR-Q procedure were 55.0% and 83.3%. It is suggested that (i) future exercise screening should combine the basic PAR-Q questions with a more specific and up-dated version of the CMI, and (ii) complaints should not be ignored because of a high overall response rate.