SAY NO TO GREEDY FEDERAL POLITICIANS BY SIGNING THIS PETITION

This petition is presented by the Oakville Community Association (OCA). whose vision is to contribute to creating an engaged, safe, caring, and vibrant community where all residents enjoy a positive quality of life.  

The Liberals have quietly tabled a revision to the Elections Act that would have the effect of ensuring that more than two dozen MPs will qualify for a gold-plated parliamentary pension even if they lose the next election.

Under the existing terms of Canadian electoral law, Canada’s next mandatory general election date is October 20, 2025 — a function of the Elections Act requiring a general election to be held “on the third Monday of October in the fourth calendar year following polling day for the last general election.”

One of the amendments proposed is a one-time change moving the election date one week later, to October 27, 2025. The stated reason for this is so election day won’t fall amidst Diwali, the five-day Hindu festival of lights, but ironically shifting the date also ensures that a number of MPs first elected in 2019, many of whom are Liberals and members of the NDP who are projected to lose in 2025 will just pass the six-year threshold required to qualify for a lifetime parliamentary pension that starts as early as age 55.

As the 2019 federal election was held on October 21, 2019, this means that any MPs first elected at that time won’t qualify for the pension until October 21, 2025, exactly one day after the previously scheduled election date of October 20, 2025.

This includes Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Treasury Board President Anita Anand, and the cost to taxpayers of the one-week delay could easily stretch into the tens of millions of dollars.