Harper shows austere leadership during economic hard times

Love him, like him or hate him, Canadian Prime Minister and Tory MP for Calgary Southwest Stephen Harper does deserve some respect for voluntarily cutting his gold plated pension plan, which will likely cost him between a million or two million dollars in tax free cash, money Canadians worked hard to pay and get little of at the end of the day. Paid as taxes, Canadians still pay one of the highest in the world, yet get very little back in the form of services, less so today than years past. As the regular everyday folk from sea to sea begin paying more for their collective retirements, as the baby boom busts its big ballooning bubble, the Members of Parliament, along with the Prime Minister himself, try balancing out the fiscal imbalance between those with and those without, getting less with a contributed $47,000 over $104,000 per annum pension of his yearly $157,731 PM and $157,731 MP salary and waiting longer at the age of 65 over 55 for it.

Further to it, Harper also took out these pension measures from the budget omnibus bill, something which must have been hard for any prime minister with a solid majority in the House, especially when the Loyal Opposition badgered the Government of the Day on the issue, to any politico watching were the signs of the political version of a forced play at second or a fielders choice.

With governments federal and provincial cutting public servants pensions and freezing their pay, while their unions yell, scream and hold their breath until they simply turn blue, the average citizen has to recognize this as a show of austere leadership during these economic hard times we live in. Harper and the federal Tories, despite doing many actions I personally disagree with as they do not seem progressive or democratic or reformed, do well with this kind of tripartisan legislative cooperation versus the usual game of blame, insult and conflict on the Hill. Perhaps this is just the federal Conservatives in Ottawa reading the writing on the Whispering Wall, such as the polls in Québec which now give a Trudeau led Liberals a lead and a second to last place next to the Greens for the federal Tories, but whatever the reason, we should recognize this as a good day for both them and their leader, our Prime Minister of Canada.