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Liberal legislation would ensure dozens of MPs secure pensions before next election · Kvetch & Release

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  A tweak to the Elections Act that the Liberals introduced last week could allow for
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  about eighty members of Parliament to qualify for a House of Commons pension. The
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  Minister unveiled changes to the Election Act last Wednesday, including expanded days for advanced
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  voting and an easier process for mail in ballots, but it would also move
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  the current proposed fix election day from October twentieth to October twenty seventh, which
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  would, through that one week delay, have significant impact on MP's pensions because
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  any MP elected in twenty nineteen would need to have reached that six year mark
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  if the election was held on October twentieth of twenty twenty five. But we'll
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  have to reach that cutoff, but will have reached that cut off on October
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  twenty seventh, the new proposed date. Joining me right now to discuss this
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  change is the head of political Science at the University of Windsor and full disclosure,
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  my former professor, Lydia Milgin. How are you doing today? We
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  all thanks? How are you? John? Hey? I'm doing well.
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  You know, I I think this is why people feel cynical about politics,
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  and you know, there there's a there's a whole list of reasons that we
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  could go into about why people feel cynical. I know, I'm feeling pretty
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  cynical about this. I look at this change here, and you know,
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  typically what we see at you know, the municipal level, when counselors end
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  up voting to raise salaries, it usually comes in effect for the next term.
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  Uh, this is uh, this is different for that, and you're
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  going to end up with you know, conservatives are in first place. They
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  be receiving the most amount of pensions with this, but the liberals are in
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  a reasonably a close second place. This. This is voting to benefit yourselves.
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  It certainly feels that way. It seems awfully strange that they are using
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  I think they're saying that it's because it falls on a high holiday for a
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  particularly religious group. But my recollection is that that didn't prevent them from changing
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  the election date last time around, because it fell around a Jewish holidays.
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  So it seems awfully convenient, and it also seems odd that they didn't move
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  the date, I don't know, a week earlier. If they're concerned about
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  a religious holiday, yes, you could go a week after, but you
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  could also go a week prior equally legitimate, I would think, so,
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  Yeah, it does smack a little bit of self service. How the Liberals
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  are. They're down in the polls right now. I think that the current
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  polling shows that if an election were held today, conservative leader player a Poliyev
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  opposition leader would end up winning a huge majority, something like thirty to forty
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  seats. But what we're looking at here with it beat with the Liberals being
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  so you know, low in the polling, this would be a way to
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  secure the pensions for any Liberals who lose the election, well right, and
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  it also secures that the pension for any Liberals choosing not to run again.
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  And that's another component of it, you know, just because you you know,
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  there's potentials you losing. But a lot I suspect that you know a
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  lot of them will see the writing on the wall and not seek reelection and
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  it would still secure their pensions. I mean again, a lot can happen
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  between now and then. The NDP could figure out that this coalition isn't working
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  for them and they could trigger an earlier election. But the way it stands,
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  it does seem like they're going to hold on as long as they can
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  and then the optics are terrible because it just opens the door for the Conservatives
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  say, well, this is your pension election. You guys don't really care
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  about what's good for Canadians. You only care about what's good for yourself.
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  So it's a very cynical move. But it's almost like they want to lose
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  when they make these kinds of mistakes. Well, the Liberals better be hoping
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  that nobody's listening to you right now, because the pension election has a pretty
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  good ring to it. Quite frankly, you know, this also smacks as
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  I don't know, not hypocritical. But Prime Minister Trudeau wanted electoral reform in
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  twenty fifteen. I interviewed him and he made his preference that he wanted ranked
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  ballots, and you know, they couldn't get a Parliamentary committee consensus on it,
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  so they dropped the whole electoral reform. The Minister LeBlanc here is saying
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  that this is about strengthening democracy. This really has the feeling like it's going
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  to upset absolutely everyone. People who go, this is an electoral reform,
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  and then people who are going, you're just benefiting yourselves absolutely. I know
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  this is in no respects anything like electoral reform. And if people are reminded
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  of the twenty fifteen election, he did say that was going to be the
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  last election under first past the post, and we've had two cents there then
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  that have continued first past the post. He was a little bit disingenuous with
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  that because when he said electoral reform, people heard proportional representation, where in
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  fact, as you rightly point out, he was only interested in rank ballot,
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  and so when nobody agreed with him that rank ballot was good for anybody
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  other than the liberals, he then said, there's no appetite for change.
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  This is not electoral reform. This is just tinkering around the margins, which
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  we've done at Ausium. We're always messing around with, you know, or
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  advanced voting, making it easier to vote, change in the hours, things
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  like that. But that's really got nothing to do with changing the electoral system,
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  per se. Last question, not a curveball. It's still in the
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  same vein of things. When you look at this federal government right now and
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  the positioning of the opposition leader, what's your read of just the landscape?
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  You know, it's you know, I look at the polls. I just
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  I look at conversations. I'm actually shocked when I'm talking just to regular people
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  who say they're not even considering voting liberal. And these are people who previously
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  were longtime liberal supporters. The appetite for change is palpable, and I think
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  the polls reflect that. And I think, you know, there is a
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  sense that the governments tend to have an expiry date, and I think we're
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  I think we're passed the best buy date for this government. And the longer
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  they stay on, the longer they sort of class to this power, the
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  worse it's going to be for them, quite frankly, and especially mister Trudeau.
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  So it's not looking good. He's just not you know, he's if
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  you think about twenty fifteen, how good he was at connecting with Canadians,
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  how there was this huge, long, extended honeymoon. His popularity was just
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  unfathomable, and he is just crashed so far back. I can't imagine how
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  he can pull his party back from that without actually resigning. That might be
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  the best thing for him, because at least we give somebody else a chance
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  to rehabilitate. Put it, put a new message, new policy, in
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  the in the in the window to help forestall Pierre Paulyev. And so the
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  question isn't you know whether or not Polyiav is going to form the next government,
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  but just how strong of a majority he's actually going to have. Will
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  it be a ten seat majority or a forty seat majority? That's what yeh
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  yeah, okay, hey, you know, thank you so much for your
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  time Lydia. It's always a pleasure, and I'm sure we'll get to talk
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  more about this government at some point soon. Yes, well, thanks John,
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  I was talking to you. Thank you so much. Lady Milgin is
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  a professor at the University of Windsor as well as the head of the Political
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  Science department and my former professor as well.