It has become apparent that
recently retiring 30-year federal and provincial elected representative of
specific political parties i.e. liberal, conservative or NDP have come up with
their own definition of new revenue sources for personal use.
The greed for power or supplementing their overly
generous government pensions after representing a political party’s loyal
members at either the federal or provincial government levels is becoming the new form of political double-dipping in Ontario and Canadian politics.
I am referring to the recent retirement or quitting
from federal politics by one Jim Karygiannis after having represented the
liberal political party and its local constituent supporters at the federal
level for more than 30 years of continued elected service.
This career politician and parliamentarian recently
thanked all his fellow members of the liberal federal political party and now
starts to collect his annual pension and benefits which he earned from
representing his party’s taxpaying supporters.
The problem is this political party member now wants to
represent these same political party constituent supporters at the municipal government level on the City Council, which unlike federal and provincial levels of
government currently does not have an open system of party politics for
campaign funding, advertising and worker support.
For decades Canadian citizens at the Toronto and
municipal government election levels have and overwhelmingly continue to prefer
that their local councillors be independent and represent their constituents
rather than representing party politics at the municipal levels of government.
As there is already an abundance of party politics
at the provincial or federal level. Further, it is grossly unfair and unethical
for a retired MPP or MP of 30 years to then seek political office at the
municipal level and be backed financially or otherwise by their political
party affiliations while receiving a taxpayer-funded pension for having served
these same party supporters at the federal or provincial levels of government.
Such political parties condoned or supported pork
barrelling and double-dipping by this or other elected parliamentarians upon
retiring is unethical and shows no respect for voters within our One City
Community of Toronto.
Toronto City Council, in my perhaps biased opinion,
does not at this time or any time in the near future require the introduction
of political party politics and the divisiveness it
encourages within communities, cities and municipalities.
It is the time leaders of the
Liberal, Conservative and NDP political parties all immediately establish a no-double-dipping rule.
This rule would clearly prohibit all previously elected and retiring
political party parliamentarians who have served their party constituents, and supporters, for 30 years or longer from seeking another position of elected office
at the municipal government level for up to ten years from the date of
retirement from either their federal or provincial elected government service.
What is needed to stop such
double-dipping is a Five-Year Post-Employment Ban for Designated Public Office
Holders & retiring or quitting MPs or MPPs.
The five-year
period would start from the time the member (MP or MPP) ceases to carry out his
or her functions with the political party he/she was elected to represent or
the time the member resigned or quit as an MP or MPP. Those who contravene this
provision would be committing an offence and liable on summary conviction to a
fine not exceeding $150,000.
The prohibition would apply
equally to all elected members of the federal parliament and or a provincial
legislature.
More food for
thought:
Are provincial governments with their political party politics really
necessary?
Perhaps another idea rather than the entry of the
divisiveness of party politics at the municipal level would be to move in another
direction.
Consider eliminating the provincial governments and having the federal government take over
education, healthcare, and other public welfare benefits and goods that
citizens consider to be entitlements from birth to grave.
Administrative
duties being transferred to municipal levels of government which would further
reduce representative and political overlap.
Provincial taxes could be
eliminated and replaced with slightly increased federal tax rates with the added
efficiency of removing a level of government if handled correctly would
translate into an overall saving for taxpayers.
Provinces already exist financially because of our current
system of transfer payments from the federal government paying for the greatest portion of education,
healthcare, debt payments, and other entitlement programs, as our federal government largely
gets to set the mandate under which they are delivered anyway, no matter what
provincial leaders advocate, on the behalf of their citizens, ultimately the
national interest usually gets the final say.
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