Norbert Cunningham: Pension plan for MPs too good

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The federal Liberal government should not be fiddling around with amendments to the Elections Act so that 80 more sitting Members of Parliament will qualify for already-gold-plated pensions if they lose the next election at the fixed date, Oct. 20, 2025, but it plans to so by permanently adding a week to the fixed date to make it Oct. 27.

The optics are horrible, and even ordinary Canadians who can see to only the end of their nose won’t be fooled. Canadian Taxpayers Federation director Franco Terrazzano said “This looks like the government is pushing back the election so more MPs can take a very lucrative, taxpayer-funded pension,” adding “if politicians don’t want to look shady, then they should stop doing shady stuff like this.”

I’m often dubious of the federation’s hard-line and also self-serving stands, but it got this one exactly right despite using very worst case numbers.

Ponder this: How will Canadian taxpayers, voters, society and democracy benefit by this more than the affected politicians? The only logical answer is they don’t.

The Liberal minority coalition government’s response from Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who introduced the planned changes, says the changed election date will avoid it conflicting with the Hindu religious festival Diwali that starts the same day, and will prevent a clash with municipal elections in Alberta that day. Other changes like expanding the number of advanced voting days and an easier process for mail-in voting are fairly minor.

Self-serving pensions are not minor. The excuses of clashing with Diwali that might deter voting by citizens of Hindu beliefs, and the clash with Alberta municipal elections are as lame as they get.

I appreciate the concerns, but a much better solution is available, needs no legislation, will cost nothing, and won’t in any way weaken the democratic process.

It will, though, prevent the already gold-plated MP pensions from becoming even more so. It’s obvious too.

Nothing in the fixed election date provisions prevents the government from calling an election before the fixed date, which only sets a date at which an election absolutely must be called. Nothing prevents the Liberal or any other government from easily avoiding the two clashes they wish to avoid by simply calling an election slightly earlier.

It’s legal, a week or two will make no significant difference. But it won’t self-deal up to 80 MPs an even better golden pension.

It’s outrageous. But look to see how the Conservative Opposition reacts, since they have 32 MPs who’d benefit if they lose, while the Liberals have 22, the Bloc Quebecois 20 and NDP six. Will they all stand up for themselves or for weary taxpayers? Will they stand up on principle or for themselves?

That said, it’s important to note that the pension individual MPs receive depends on their years of service and how long they live after retiring. Also they do pay in, and do not continue to get paid while continuing through their working years elsewhere, as some seem to think. More reasonable if the MPs care about voters and taxpayers would be an eight to 10 year eligibility period for their gold-plated pensions. They’d gain much more respect.

Norbert Cunningham is a Brunswick News columnist and a retired editorial page editor with the Times & Transcript