Or so you think it's a secret. Political scientists like Nelson Wiseman and Henry Jacek, canvassed by our national political writer Christopher Guly for a story on older Canadians and their voting patterns that will appear in many editions of Forever Young this month, figure they have a pretty good idea how you will be voting on election day.

Don't like Harper, Dion, Layton or any of the other leaders? Whoever is leader doesn't matter as much to older voters, Jacek, from McMaster University in Hamilton, says. Older Canadians will tend to vote "even if they don't like the party leaders," Jacek says, calling it "aging theory." As people get older and have more responsibilities, they become more interested in politics and believe they have an obligation to society to cast a vote and an interest in the outcome of an election, Jacek told Guly. "They have more at stake."

The stats bear this out. In the 2000 federal election, 89 per cent of seniors voted, according to Statistics Canada, a figure well above the national voting rate of 61 per cent in that election.

On top of that, a 2006 study from the same federal agency suggests that older voters follow the news and current affairs more closely and know the issues better - making their votes, it can be argued, better informed.

"In 2003, the vast majority of Canadians (89 per cent) followed news and current affairs frequently, that is, daily or several times a week," said the StatsCan report. "However, seniors aged 65 and over were more likely to follow the news on a frequent basis than young adults aged 19 to 24 (95 per cent versus 79 per cent).

That same study indicated "Frequent users of the news tended to be more involved in non-voting political activities such as attending public meetings; searching for information on a political issue; volunteering for a political party; expressing their views by contacting a newspaper or politician; signing a petition; or participating in a march or demonstration."

Those images of well-aged faces framed by grey hair you see at those televised political rallies do not lie. Seniors are doing more than their part to keep democracy healthy in Canada.