There’s talk that the honeymoon is just about over for Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government in Ottawa — though he is still mighty popular with young people. They do see him as some sort of messiah, cause he is so cool and loves to be in selfies with people. And he has promised to legalize pot.
No, I’m not knocking him. I like him, too, even if he is running up a huge deficit in Canada of $113 billion over the next five years. No matter, we’ll all be so stoned when pot is legalized we won’t care about the sea of red ink.
Nor will we care that MPs and senators are about to get a raise this week courtesy of the Canadian taxpayers.
Here’s how the Ottawa Citizen’s Jason Fekete put it in a National Post article, which has inspired some interesting reader comments from taxpayers who can see past the clouds of marijuana smoke:
“The 338 MPs will see their salaries rise to $170,400 from $167,400, while Trudeau — who gets another $170,400 as PM — now will make $340,800, an increase of $6,000. Cabinet ministers, interim Opposition leader Rona Ambrose and House Speaker Geoff Regan (who get an extra $81,500 for their roles) will get a $4,400 bump to $251,900. Senators, who by federal law are required to be paid $25,000 less than MPs, will make $145,400, up from $142,400.”
“The pay hike for MPs is nearly double the average increase of one per cent that public sector unions negotiated in jurisdictions across Canada in 2015. MPs have the option of freezing their own salaries through federal legislation, but the government has decided not to do so.”
And, the Post reports, taxpayers will pay $25 million more to support office budgets for MPs and House of Commons officers . . .
Sigh . . . The song remains the same: New boss the same as the old boss, and we all got fooled again.
But we taxpayers don’t mind putting more feed in the trough for our politicians, do we?
After all, we’ll all be so comfortably numb on pot that we won’t care that MPs and senators are digging deeper into our pockets and purses.
Because, as some old hippie said a long time ago: A friend with weed is a friend indeed . . .
P.S. No, I’m not going to get into some of the recent Liberal spending scandals involving limousines and photographers . . .
— Jillian
Tsk, tsk. We see you have been a cynic too? Or PAW(putanotherway) no longer naive. Wiser?!?!? No, not likely. That’s why there is Religion. The alternatives are not something most humans can handle. That’s why we Like Cupcakes %P
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Actually, I have been drinking a California wine called Gray Fox this week. Quite nice!
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Salaries are just gravy for these people. They’re already wealthy and make much more from various unmentioned sources than these measly paychecks.
Money to them isn’t a necessity; it’s a symbol of power in their circles.
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Exactly. Which makes these raises all the more obscene.
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Just wondering, but when was the last time YOU were able to give yourself a several thousand dollar raise? 😉
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Never.
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