With nice fat pensions, Alliance no longer party of the little guy
The Province
Once upon a time the Reform party was proud to be known as the party for the little guy, the hard-pressed taxpayer.
That was why western Canadians voted for them in droves in the 1993 federal election.
And it was why they cheered when Reform MPs launched a blistering series of attacks on the bloated parliamentary pension plan, a symbol of all the greed that was Ottawa.
Under the gold-plated plan, Canadian taxpayers were required to fork over SIX dollars for every ONE dollar MPs themselves contributed.
In 1995, the ruling Liberals reduced that 6:1 ratio to one of under 4:1. But, Reform MPs remained convinced the scheme was far too generous and overwhelmingly decided to opt out of it.
Indeed, when four B.C. Reform MPs seized the opportunity to re-join the plan in 1998, they were treated as pariahs.
Today, the Reform party is the Canadian Alliance.
And many MPs who once condemned the pension scheme have now signed up for it or are preparing to do so.
Only two have said they're sticking to their principles: Werner Schmidt (Kelowna) and Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton-Melville, Sask.) Indeed, the excuses their colleagues give for switching positions are lame, even by Canadian parliamentary standards.
The high priestess of hypocrisy is veteran Alberta MP Deborah Grey, once the most rabid of the anti-MP-pension cheerleaders.
Grey opted out of the plan in 1995 with great fanfare; she used to accuse those who collected the fat pensions of being "porkers."
Now, the 48-year-old confesses she is buying back into it -- for her family's sake.
Now, isn't that big of her!
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is outraged.
"I think this is an example of how Ottawa changes people," said national director Walter Robinson.
Millions of Canadians go to work every day without any pension plan, let alone one that is the second richest in the country after federal judges.
These ordinary Canadians save for their own retirement as best they can, while puffed-up politicians and bureaucrats cream off much of their meagre earnings.
No, the Canadian Alliance Party is no longer the party of the little guy. |
