I wonder how Stephen Harper would feel, if he was just an ordinary person and government told him he wouldn’t get any Old Age Security benefits until he was 67 instead of 65.
I’m sure Harper would be pretty upset. He’d be getting on in years and he’d like a bit of a break after working 40-odd years. He might not want to have to work two additional years, time he’d never get back, just so he might have a couple of years left to enjoy what’s left of the inevitable decline.
And yet there is speculation the Harper government will raise the age people can collect their pensions from 65 to 67. That would mean Canadians approaching senior-hood who may already be struggling to make ends meet would have to struggle a little bit longer.
Of course, changes wouldn’t hurt Harper or any of the other MPs in the House of Commons. They are eligible for pensions after serving only six years in the House, and they can start collecting at age 55. And those pensions are pretty generous.
Years ago, Harper called Canada “a third-rate socialist country,” so it isn’t much of a surprise his government would consider cutting programs that would hurt the poor much more than the rich. The economic crisis is little more than an excuse, since any changes would be long-term and difficult to reverse.
If Stephen Harper stood up today and said he was willing to give up a big chunk of his pension to help save the country, we might be willing to play along. But politicians will never risk their own financial security. They’ll just risk ours instead.
David MacDonald