Political Will

Having recently taken a job in the social service sector, I am more acutely aware of the government's approach to the "election budget".  The government budget process seems to becoming more about pleasing the electorate and less about the actual cost of social programs.  I believe that funding our social programs needs to be more about satisfying a need and less about how to achieve a balanced budget.  There are always competing needs for tax dollars, however, refusing to provide any increased dollars to the social sector in light of the pending major payout dollars in MLA pensions seems to me to be a travesty.  You see, the biggest disadvantage of voting out the liberals is the number of MLA's that will now qualify for a full pension after their two terms.We the tax payers are caught between a rock and a hard place.  Although all sectors of the economy are struggling, do you think the members of parliament are going to do anything to share our pain by forgoing these large pension payouts.  I would hope they would think that was the honorable thing to do, however, I won't hold my breath.