Here we go again. MP Randy Hoback, instead of delivering a report to his constituents on what is happening in Ottawa, is once again using the Herald as an electioneering platform, all while failing to advise us as what efforts he has been involved in to assist in the governing of Canada. If his article in yesterday’s Herald is any indication, those efforts only voting with the Conservative caucus at every opportunity to affirm Parliament no longer has “confidence” in the government – and therefore a general election must be called.
I don’t know about you, but the majority of individuals I know haven’t any desire to have their doors knocked upon for the second time in less than six months, even if they have a ¾ ton pick-up in the driveway with the tailgate emblazoned with an “(expletive) Trudeau” bumper sticker. After Christmas? Country folk are preparing for planting. During the summer? At least being at the lake with the family, I won’t have to listen to candidates knocking at the door trying to tell me how they could change things for the better – even if their potential solutions actually make sense. Next Fall? This is Saskatchewan. If you want to see voter turnout under 40 per cent again, choose the harvesting season to drop the writ.
What does that leave as a REASONABLE option for the next federal election? Guess when – October 26, 2025 – which is when the next federal fight fiesta is currently scheduled for a writ drop.
I have to admit that the Conservatives utilizing the EXACT words NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has occasionally expressed in public as to the latest performance undertaken by their previous Liberal coalition partners is an awesome lead-in; HOWEVER, given that even wannabe eventual PM, Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford, wants to have an Ontario election BEFORE there’s any chance that Mr. Hoback’s “fearless Leader”, Pierre Poilievre, becomes the occupant of 10 Sussex Drive (after repairs), I’d be holding my nose and voting against myself as well – and buying the beer for whichever of my friends jokingly called me on it.
What readers should be paying attention to, however, is the vast list nonsense the remainder of Mr. Hoback’s column contains with respect to Mr. Singh’s potential pension benefit, should the federal election actually occur in late 2025. Now think about what that says about how gullible the Conservatives must think we voters are in order for Mr. Hoback’s exaggerated mathematical errors to stir us into some state of righteous indignation – and even if that’s not going to change your mind and vote for Mr. Hoback, doesn’t that fact at least make you feel “guilty”?
While you’re deciding, please keep this in mind. I’m NOT in Parliament, and IF I CALL something a “LIE”, even if it’s true, I can STILL potentially be sued for uttering these comments, so I’ll stand behind my next words…
What strikes me as being so pathetically weak in its appeal is that virtually everything having to deal with mathematics in Mr. Hoback’s column points to “why” Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney created the largest deficits the Canadian government has ever wracked up – at least, until the Covid-19 “flu” arrived to play with the emotional wellbeing of Canadians.
Let’s get started with the junk figures, starting with Mr. Singh’s alleged “theft” of $2.6 million doled out to him over his retirement period. I’m assuming just for the sake of argument that the Conservative mind bend on this detail is that Mr. Singh will be defeated in the next federal election due to the NDP’s “complicity” and audacity in actually supporting the Liberals during this minority parliamentary session. Given that were it not for the NDP, we’d STILL not have functioning Dental Care and Pharmacare programs dealing with Canada’s health issues, as well as much-needed CERB-related assistance programs to help individuals and small business entities cope with loss of business (with many doing so illegally, due to lax supervision of payment disbursement – which was the Liberals’ responsibility, due to its leader being the PM), THAT ain’t going to happen…
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Mr. Singh DOES lose his seat in the next election; what happens then? Well, for starters, since he’d have never reached the SIX YEAR threshold of parliamentary service before then, he could simply have the amount he paid into the pension plan over his years of service. HOWEVER, IF he were re-elected, he’d be eligible for a starting pension upon retirement at age 65 of some $66,000 per annum, which is nice, but isn’t any different from a private citizen working in a job that pays some $100,000 per annum plus change would also be drawing.
Now, IF you take that amount and divide it into the $2.3 million “pension” that he’d supposedly draw thanks to calling the election in late 2025, FIRST OF ALL, he wouldn’t get that amount paid as a lump sum; he’d garner that amount over 34 YEARS – which means that he’d live to the ripe old age of 99.
What’s equally absurd here is that the pension modifications for MP’s gave 32 CONSERVATIVE MP’s the same pension option as Mr. Singh (National Post, March 26, 2024), 22 Liberals, 20 Bloc Quebecois, AND the “killer” number in this jokefest – SIX NDP members.
The horror!
And STILL the Conservatives want to have an election based upon the “carbon tax”. Even when I ran for the NDP in 2021, that topic was never brought up by the voters with whom I had conversation…
There are still more mathematical “whoppers” in Mr. Hoback’s column, such as his claiming that the Liberal-NDP coalition “doubled” housing costs, as opposed to land speculators, real estate big box promoters and builders, AND $800 more in groceries paid in 2025 – when we’re still dealing with the 2021 to 2024 reality of climate change threatening food production, not to mention industries, INCLUDING grocery chains, still claiming product shortage due to “supply chain management”.
What an amusing fairy tale the Conservatives tell…
