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I agree with your third to the last paragraph. I also believe that all parties need to start working together for the interest of Canadians. I for one am getting tired of the political games being played. From what I have seen the only thing that the parties are interested in is trying to form government and they are trying to do everything possible to discredit each other in order to accomplish their goal of convincing the electorate that their party is the best choice.
The polls indicate a virtual tie between the Liberals and Conservatives and with voter turnout having been the lowest ever in the 2008 election, and with everything that has taken place in and outside of parliament since then, it is going to be interesting to see what the percentage will be in the next election. How low does voter turnout have to get before our political masters get it into their heads that there is something wrong, and that the major problem lies with them. I had one MP tell me that the reason why voter turnout is so low is because the people who don’t vote are lazy and would rather stay home playing with their computers. No doubt there are those who would fit into this catagory but I believe that the percentage would be very low. If this is the perception amongst our MPs then nothing is going to change, they are going to just chaulk it up to more and more lazy Canadians and not face the reality that the problem exists with them.

I sent the following letter to Mr. Holder, Stephen Harper and to your organization. I recommend that you add this to your position regarding MP salaries being cut (which I believe is a good idea) but what I have suggested is a permanent fix when it comes to taxpayer relief.

Mr. Ed Holder, MP London West
200-390 Commissioners Road West
London, Ontario N6J 1Y3

Dear Mr. Holder:

Now that parliament has been prorogued and various CPC members will be considering input to the budget that will be presented in early March, I would like to offer a suggestion for one piece of content.

Rightly or wrongly, many taxpayers/voters have significant concerns about the amount of pension benefits that members receive once they qualify and subsequently lose their seat in the House. There is equal concern about the size of pension benefits received by retiring Senators. Changes in the Senate would have to wait for the achievement of the Triple “E” status.

I realize that you may regard my suggestion as not in your personal best interest, but please consider what I have to say from the perspective of those who have recently lost their jobs and those who are on fixed retirement income.

The term “level playing field” is used frequently in arguing for the rights of those individuals and organizations that find themselves disadvantaged in some way in comparison with others, mainly due to perceived inequities in law or the marketplace.

Such is the case I believe in the matter of MP pension benefits.

My suggestion is as follows.

Firstly, for those MP’s that have qualified for pension benefits, delay the commencement of the payment of such benefits until the respective MP has reached the recognized retirement age in the private sector, that being age 60 at the earliest. That would constitute one step toward leveling the playing field between the treatment of MP’s and the general public.

Secondly, to aid in the transition from public service back to private life, for those MP’s who have qualified for pension benefits but have not yet reached the retirement age of 60, continue to pay their base salary (excluding extra compensation for such things as committee service) for a period of one year from the date of ceasing to be a MP. This would be in lieu of employment insurance benefits and would be another step toward leveling the playing field with the public in general.

To make this more palatable for those members who have not achieved pension qualification and to win their support for the necessary legislative and budget support, provide base salary compensation for a period of six months following the loss of their seat in the House in lieu of employment insurance benefits. This again levels the playing field with the general public with respect to practice.

Now is an opportune time to bring forth these changes because of the current economic condition in the country and it would provide one small, albeit important, reduction in spending to curb the deficit. It would send an important signal to the taxpayers, particularly those that are out of work, that the economic hardships they currently face are being recognized and shared by their elected representatives. Politically it would be difficult for any opposition party to vote against such measures and to do so would be seen by the public as self serving and in particular with the Liberals as a continuation of their belief of being “entitled to their entitlements”.

To assist you in bringing this forward, I am copying Mr. Harper and the National Citizens Coalition on this memorandum.

I look forward to your comments and response to the foregoing proposal.

Yours truly,

Jim Henkel

CC The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
The National Citizens Coalition

Economics 101 : you can’t keep spending more than you make.

October 6, 2008
Bank economists predict: ‘worse than a recession’.
Canada’s Five BIG banks, expect little or no growth in the near future…economy’s current gloom to deepen into something worse than recession.
“You have to invent a new word to describe what we’re in now…it’s being driven through the financial markets, into the real economy - Warren Jestin-Bank of Nova Scotia”.
The U.S. and Canada’s economic slides will require central bankers, in both countries, to cut interest rates by at least a full percentage point.

February 19, 2009
Olympic security estimated to cost $900M.
2010 Olympic Games security, now pegged at $900 million, or almost five times the amount initially estimated.

March 12, 2009
Reckless U.S. consumers caused recession: Harper.
Stephen Harper said the global recession was caused by American consumers and investors who believed in the “unconservative” idea that they could borrow without consequences.

March 26, 2009
Ontario posting $57-billion in deficits over 7 years.
The government plans to spend $32.5 billion on infrastructure spending, plus $700 million on skills development… expecting a deficit for 2008-09 of $3.9 billion and $14.1 billion for 2009-10. The deficits running to 2014-15 are expected to add up to $56.8 billion.

May 26, 2009
Federal deficit headed toward record territory.
OTTAWA’S Finance Minister; Flaherty revealed the FED deficit will be more than $50 billion this year, the highest shortfall ever recorded in Canada.

June 30, 2009
Auditor General wants to look at MPs’ expenses.
Canada’s 308 MPs received about $127 million in expenses last year but there are no public details into exactly how that money was spent. Some $700,000 of that money is simply classified under “other.”

July 23, 2009
Canada on the rebound, recession over: BoC.
A new, optimistic forecast by the Bank of Canada suggests the recession is essentially over in this country as we bounce back at a rate twice as strong as the United States.

August 19, 2009
IMF sees slow growth, tax hikes soon.
Most countries need to raise taxes to pay off trillions of dollars spent fighting global recession.

November 16, 2009
Governments lose millions in company bankruptcy.
The federal and P.E.I. governments have lost almost $3 million in the bankruptcy of a manufacturer located at the foot of the Confederation Bridge.

November 26, 2009
Royal visit cost Canada $2.57M.
Canada spent $2.57 million on the visit by Charles and his wife Camilla, that started in Newfoundland and ended in Ottawa.

November 30, 2009
GDP growth signals recession’s end.
Economists define a recession as two or more consecutive quarters of economic contraction, so the expansion of the economy after three consecutive quarterly contractions means that, in technical terms, the Canadian recession is over for now.
“If Canada’s recession was not over last quarter, it is now,” BMO economist Michael Gregory said.

December 7, 2009
Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto.
G20 summit implies 10,000 hotel rooms and providing air-tight security for more than 30 international delegations. Huntsville has 1,000 rooms at most.
Ottawa has already sunk $11 million into airport upgrades in North Bay, Ont., although no decision had been made to fly delegations through the city.

December 14, 2009
Taxpayers footing bill for senators’ globe-trotting.
Senators quietly expanded their opportunities to jet around globe, courtesy of Canadian taxpayers.

December 17 (Bloomberg) — Toronto Dominion Bank fined 7 million pounds ($11 million) by U.K. Financial Services Authority for repeated systems and controls failures–pricing of positions it held on credit default swaps.

December 17, 2009
Toronto-Dominion Bank called the recession over Thursday and predicted global growth next year would reach 3.8 per cent in 2010.

January 4, 2010
CEOs paid 174 times more than average worker: report.
The average pay packet of Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs hit more than $7.3 million in 2008…174 times more than the average wage of the typical Canadian worker.

January 7, 2010
Canada PM Harper Says Recession Not Truly Over.
Stephen Harper said on Thursday the country’s recession is not yet over, noting that the return to economic growth in a technical sense is not the only factor to be considered.

January 19, 2010
Economy still not ready to stand on own legs, Bank of Canada says.
It will be another year before the Canadian economy can stand on its own feet without government assistance, the Bank of Canada said Tuesday.

Re. cabinet shuffle.
Stockwell must cut public spending. Some ideas:
Cut MP’s salaries, expenses and pensions (sends a big message!)
Cut funding of the Official Languages office (there would be a huge ripple effect into the private sector that would save a good part of the $16 BILLION a year that OB costs us now.)
Cut corporate welfare.
Cut payments to the provinces and mandate that they must also cut expenditures, not just increase provincial taxes.
Pay down the debt.
That’s a start… we’ll see how it goes.
Very best.

We feel Stockwell Day has been one of the best perfoming and hard working cabinet ministers in the Harper Government and he will do a very good job in his new portfolio. When the members of parliament return to work Canadians should expect something to be accomplished on our behalf. Also I would hope all parties will get on with the business of running the country and stop the bickering and posturing for votes but use their energy to work on the economy.

The government needs to cut spending and set an example by cutting there salaries by at least 5% and cut back on unnessary spending on there expense accounts.
They have to down size gorernment departments.
The plan to create 35 more ridings and elect more MP is the one I cannot beleive and will be the end of my voting Consertative for a long time.
How can they even consider such a thing at this time. Change the riding boundaries and eliminate ridings in areas losing population.

CUT CUT CUT!!!!!
i dont care what the program name is, CUT IT.
i am sick and tired of people proclaiming that answer to everything is govt spending. i dont want to pay for some art program in quebec. i dont care.
i dont give a damn if BC has olympics to pay for. i dont care.
so what if we fail to secure first place at said games. does not bother me.
what would make me truly happy is when i see a govt that not only balances budgets but pays down debt and refuses to buy votes with my money.

The first place to start cutting without causing hardship is within the Federal Government itself. Repositioning public sector wages, benefits and pensions to be in line with the private sector should be step one. Step two should be the reduction of the number of people in all departments by 10 to 15% through atrition as well as outright reduction. Step three should be a serious reduction in the total number of seats in parliament
rather than increasing them. Our population is less than California, we could easily cut the seats by half. I haven’t even picked a few, of the many government departments we don’t need, or reduced the huge amount of grants for everything one can think of.
OH, I forgot for a moment, 65% of the Federal Government employees are Francofone………..not going to happen………..the tail is still wagging the dog.

Talk about economy. Why did we bail out the car companies, nobody bailed us out, people that lost money when the market collapsed. Give your head a shake! We certainly don’t need anymore cars on the road, so why are we supporting the car companies?? The cars are still overpriced for what they are really worth, so are their employees.
Nothing but plastic and a powerful engines, I see the crash results every day, the junk yards are filled to the brim. The National Safety Council has to be corrupt to let the car companies produce cars like this, and yet they get bailed out on the taxpayers back.

Obviouusly the PM is going to have to table something designed to keep the Coservatives in power. The Canadian people have let him know via the polls the prorougue move is not popular. We really can’t go after the Government until we see what happens in March.

My wife & I agree 100% with your comments quoted below. We won’t hold our breath, especially with regard to items one & two! Brian & Pat
“A pay cut for all MP’s, freezing of the civil service wages, not hiring civil servants to replace those that are retired, zero based budgeting for all departments and capping the program spending so that increases are very minimal ( no increase in spending would be much more preferable) would be a good start.”

Our current Offficial Bilingualism, started in 1969, is estimated to have cost us to March 31, 2009, $1.3 TRILLION PLUS, and growing at the rate of say - $20 BILLION per year.
What have we got for this obscene, divisive, discrimatory, prejudiced, policy?
In this area alone lies a huge opportunity to turn Canada’s once prosperous economy away from her too often repeated deficits since 1969, repeatedly trying to bribe voters with money, in effect, stolen from future tax-payers.

1. Who cares about who does what in cabinet or elsewhere? The only ones who count are Harper, Flaherty, McKay and that is about it. Do party leaders really think that shuffling a few nonentities around makes a hoot of difference to the voting public? It won’t change my voting pattern one whit, and I take a close interest. Even so, I cannot be sure that I have even spelled their names correctly.!
2. Major salary cuts are in order.
3. I am totally against close co-operation between the parties. Who wants to have to listen to the views of idiots like Iggy or Layton whose interests are not those of Canada anyway? The NDP are not worth discussing; but the Trudeau and Cretin years virtually destroyed Canada and these were perfect examples of liberals “looking after” OUR country - which is not the same as their country.

I think the Conservatives are doing a good job considering the global situation. What I don’t want them to do is let the Canadian dollar be devalued. Twenty five and thirty percent off on Canadian assets because of a devalued dollar does not make sense with me. We need more competition through sub-contracting with unbiased bidding to hold down inflationary costs.
Welfare in Canada should be compulsory education.We cannot progress as a society by leaving people behind that are uncapable of competing in society because of the lack of understanding and education.
The Government should look at the aid program for Haiti as an investment in future trade and a tropical climate for our snow birds. Our industrial sector could blend well with their agricultural economy. Fresh fruit and vegatable costs are on the rise. Weather patterns are not making a reliable source guaranteed from the Southern U.S.A.

Cut cost of government yes,but who truly pays the cost needs reform.Profitable business does not pay taxes:prices are set to give an after tax return.Public employees do not pay taxes:its all our money. Watch who is first in line to demand a pay raise to compensate the increase in cost of living caused by the HST.Our ability to compete,and the growing gap between haves and have-nots is largely the result of the too high cost of government(at all levels),and the disparity those,business and individual,who can pass it on.