Quick, without thinking, name one thing that senior citizens do that most people can't be bothered to.

There are several acceptable answers to this question, including: watching Matlock re-runs, writing letters to elected officials, and for the purposes of this writing, voting in municipal elections.

During the last municipal election in 2006, I worked a 14-hour shift, sweating over a hot folding table in an elementary school gym, explaining the ballot to voters, most of whom appeared to be 60 plus.

They were represented in droves, doing their democratic duty. Senior citizens are a powerful lobby at all levels of government in both Canada and the United States.

In short, don't mess with old people if you're a politician.

White Rock city councillor Matt Todd decided to go against the grain a week ago in an e-mail sent to colleagues, as well as the city manager and editor of the Peace Arch News.

In the message, he chastises a fellow councillor who expressed concerns in a Peace Arch News story earlier this month about an unfinished sidewalk, as well as a woman pictured crossing the street with a walker, avoiding it.

Here is the quote from the article:

“So, instead of the old lady who was stubborn enough to ignore the warning signs and stupid enough to push her walker into the street looking bad, it is the city who looks bad because we ‘didn’t do something.’ Do what? That’s a good question,” Todd wrote.

I winced when I read that statement. Todd didn't just bite the hand that feeds him, he swallowed it, and with municipal elections in November, he picked a bad time to shoot from the lip, or in this case, the keyboard.

The city of White Rock has one of the largest and most active pockets of seniors in the province, as more than a quarter of the area's residents are 65 or over, dwarfing the 8 per cent for the Lower Mainland in total.

Predictably, letters flowed into the mailbox and inbox of the News, and people were upset.

My favourite take was from a self-described 'old lady' who wrote that while her hearing and eyesight aren't what they once were, her brain is fully intact and she knows when she and her friends are being insulted.

She suggested that Todd get around with a walker for a week, restrict the use of his knees, cloud his eyes with Vaseline and put earplugs in his ears.

Perhaps Todd should heed this advice, it may help him re-gain lost brownie points.

After all, the election is only three months away.