I walked over to the post box today hoping that the last piece that I needed for my income tax would be there. It was not. However there was a a single sheet of paper. At the top of which on one side was the headline as above. The rest of it is at the bottom of this post. I looked it over and on the backside I was encouraged to vote. My choices were Yes, No, Unsure with the question being should government be allowed to make this change.
Now I will be the first to admit that I know very little about the government. I have never voted. It is not that I am not interested because I am. However, I have absolutely no idea what each party is trying to do. How are they going to help the people of Canada? How are they going to pay down our debt? What are their environmental policies? How can we continue to provide services to seniors, veterans, children when so many are being cut? These are the things that impact me. These are the questions that I want answers to. Instead what I get is a lot of hoopla about what the other party did not do.
I do not care at all what the party did not do. I am only interested in what they have done. Have they at the very least fulfilled some of the platform that they ran on? And what is their plan to continue forward with an eye to a bigger and brighter future. Slandering them and fear mongering is what happens though. And no one is immune.
It usually starts small. A little ad in the paper. Than you begin to hear ads on the radio. And finally they make an appearance on television. It is another election year. Your vote matters. Everyone needs to vote for a better tomorrow. However before that even begins there are usually small starts to the smear campaigns. And again, I cannot reiterate this enough, I do not want to hear about how rotten the other party is. I want to hear your platform.
You must understand, I want to make an informed decision. I want to be able to compare apples to apples. But to do so I need concise information that explains in detail what you are going to do for Canadians. Your platform. Let me make my decisions logically, not because of tearing people down.
I have always felt very passionate about this. Actually my brother and me have both joked about running for parliment. On what platform? Cutting the salaries that the politicians are getting. Taking a good look at where the expenses are horrendous. And in finding said funds, being able to pay down the national debt, funding services that have been cut as unessential. Beyond that neither one of us has really got a plan.
Out of curiosity I decided that I would look up how much our Members of Parliment and Prime Minister make. The article I am getting my numbers from was written by Amy Minsky National Online Journalist Global News. Originally published online at globalnews.ca April 27/17.
Prime Minister-$345,400.00
Members of Parliment-$172,700.00
These are base salaries. Now as I read further along, it comes out that they are going to receive salaries beyond the base as compensation for addition roles and duties. This is a direct line from Ms. Minsky’s article.
Prime Minister: $345,400.00
Members of Parliment: $255,300.00
Well now. As I am looking at these numbers I am a little stupified. The Prime MInister recieves $690,800.00 per year. Which when divided by 12 months means he is taking home $57,566.66 per month. Members of Parliment receive $428,000 per year. Again divide that by 12 months and they are taking home $35,666.66 a month. I know that there are taxes that need to be taken off. Do they pay into the Canadian Pension Plan and Unemployment as well? I am sure that they donate some of it. But what the heck do they need the rest for?
I was thinking that oh yes, they have purchases for work that they will have to pay out of pocket for. That would most likely take up a bit of money. But wait, again curiosity got the better of me and I googled what do M.P.’s have to pay out of pocket and are they reimbursed? Short answer yes.
Oh wait though, they have to pay for their campaigns so they must be……..no matter how I look at it I cannot justify a salary like this.
Yes they are running the country. Well? I don’t know. But I am thinking that much like in a company where an evaluation of the employees determine a raise should be introduced into Parliment. They give themselves raises and the people of Canada are not even given the chance to voice their opinion. I mean we are paying their salary, why should they not be accountable to the country?
The average Canadian does not make that amount of money per month. There are a lot of people out there who can survive and have had to survive on nothing. We live in a country where approximately 1.2 million children live in poverty. 1.2 million children. Can you imagine if they had salaries that were comprehensible to the average Canadian, how much more money would be freed up to be put back into Canada and the services that continue to be cut due to lack of funding.
I have to apologize. I am sure that what I have written is incoherent and sounds like the ravings of a mad woman. I wanted to discuss how we were to make informed decisions in regards to issues that are relevant to us, the people of Canada. Instead, I wandered off into a discussion of money.
And again, I am not political. I would like to be. And looking at those salaries I am thinking that it is time that everyone starts to pay attention.
Back to the little flyer I received. I voted unsure. And in the comments stated ‘Given the fact that there was nothing here to tell me what changes exactly the Liberal party is planning to make to the Summer Job Funding program, I am unable to make an informed decision. All this is is a scare tactic.’
It is a small victory. Nothing will come of it, but at least I have finally done it instead of only talking about it.
The Wonderful and Wacky World of One Single Mom 