Forget about Santa Claus

Who needs him anyways? His purpose is redudant, especially when you can vote yourself a $22,000.00 per year raise. It's Christmas year around if you're an Ontario's MPP! The decision- a simple majority vote by, who else, Ontario's MPPs- increases their base salary from $88,771.00/yr to $110,775.00/yr; an increase of over $20,000.00 or a whopping 25%. Things are even better for cabinet ministers, whose increase of $31,000.00 will see them make $157,633.00/yr, while McGuinty's $39,000.00 raise gives him an annual salary of a whopping $198,620.00/yr. Keep in mind that the average Ontarian makes just better than $35,000.00/yr., according to the most recent census data.

But such an increase is justified, right? After all, "it's still well less than the federal ministers that we are compared to," said Liberal MP Richard Patten. "I think it's time to be fair," added our wonderful premier. How does this logic possibly work? Why are provincial MPs comparing themselves to federal MPs? And what was McGuinty smoking when he added that people in municipal politics are making more than MPPs? I have a friend who is a city councillor (actually, her patriarchical city still calls her an alderman) who makes just over $16,000/yr. If Ontario's MPs want to make the same money their federal counterparts do, then they ought to run federally. I, for one, won't miss many of them. But McGuinty claims that Ontario MPPs do the same work as federal MPs, and they're willing to do it for 25% less. Hooray! What a steal!

Federal politics is different from provincial politics. No better, no worse, just different. So shouldn't our MPs compare themselves to other provinces in the federation? If they did, they'd find that the $88,771.00 they were making before their raise was a hell of a lot better than the $36,689.00 made by PEI's MLAs, better than the $76,100.00 made by BC's MLAs, and better than the base salary of every other sub-national entity in Canada, with the exception of the NorthWest Territories (and Quebec, if you include the tax free allowance that members of the national assembly earn). So, what seems 'fair' now? I'd say that earning over $88,000 a year- about 2.5 times the annual income of the average Ontarian- ain't too bad after all.

I'd have to say the most disturbing part of this entire situation is the audacity of the Liberal Party and its members. McGuinty's comments, urging us to grab some popcorn for the NDP's performance in attempting to delay the bill's passage, pales in comparison to Labour Minister Steve Peters pulling on a Santa hat with 'bah humbug' written across it prior to the vote. Let's see how generous the provincial government and its Labour Minister are when Ontario's public servants seek any sort of raise, let alone a 25% increase.

If Peters, McGuinty and others fear that Ontario's MPPs will jump ship for "greener pastures" if they are under paid (hah, under paid...try living on minium wage for a while), then I say see you later. Ontario won't miss you.

I think Peter Kormos put it best when he said that "at the end of the day it's chicken for MPPs and feathers for the rest of Ontario." I'll try and enjoy my feather dinner for Christmas; I'll also keep my fingers crossed that Saint Nick brings me a 25% wage increase.