Canada Now Has More Seniors Than Children. Author Dan Pontefract Is Available to Explain What That Means for Work

Bestselling author of The Future of Work Is Grey offers data-backed commentary on Canada’s greying workforce as new research lands

VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA, September 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Statistics Canada confirmed it in June: the share of Canadian firms whose average worker is over 40 climbed from 26.2 per cent in 2001 to 42.3 per cent in 2022, and in 2023, for the first time in the country’s history, Canadians aged 65 and older outnumbered those under 18.
The demographic story is no longer coming. It has arrived. The question for every Canadian employer is what to do about it.
Ahead of National Seniors Day and the United Nations International Day of Older Persons (both October 1) and Ageism Awareness Day (October 9), leadership strategist and bestselling author Dan Pontefract is available for interviews, commentary, and expert analysis on the country’s greying workforce.

Pontefract is the author of The Future of Work Is Grey (Page Two, May 2026), the first book to treat workforce aging as a strategy problem rather than an HR afterthought. His fifth TEDx talk, “What Work Gets Wrong About Age,” is now live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVtQSYlapPE

Dan can speak to:
• Age Debt: the compounding organizational cost of pushing out experienced workers—then paying to replace what walked out the door—and how Canadian firms can measure theirs
• The Experience Dividend: why the employers winning the talent shortage are the ones treating workers over 55 as an asset class, backed by verified Canadian and international data
• Rivers, Rocks, and Rubies: a plain-language framework for the three eras of a modern career, and why ageism cuts in both directions (Pontefract was told at 27 he was too young for his job; he has the story, and the scars, to prove it)
• AI and the aging workforce: why artificial intelligence raises the value of experienced judgment rather than lowering it

Quote for use (attributable to Dan Pontefract):

“For the first time in our history, Canada has more people over 65 than under 18. It is the biggest strategic story of the decade, and we keep mistaking it for an HR afterthought. The organizations that stop exiting the ‘old and expensive’, and start counting the experience walking out the door, will own the next decade. Age is an asset not a liability.”

About Dan Pontefract
Dan Pontefract is a leadership strategist, keynote speaker, and the author of six award-winning books, including The Future of Work Is Grey (2026) and Work-Life Bloom, winner of the 2024 Thinkers50 Best New Management Book award. A five-time TED speaker and Thinkers50 Radar honouree, he is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business and previously served as Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS. He writes for Forbes and other outlets and lives in Vancouver, BC.

Media contact:
grey@danpontefract.com
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Dan Pontefract
Pontefract Group
grey@danpontefract.com
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What Work Gets Wrong About Age - TEDx Talk by Dan Pontefract