SETI E TN ELE GLAD TAS FORE LEIS RET A Miary Collins goes to the troug WOULD YOU say Mary Collins was worth $984,842 to you? That, in any event, is the value of the pension the lady will qualify for on Trough Day. which is next Tues- day. She’s not alone. Seventy-four other MPs will also be giving thanks Sept. 4 for having got themselves into the best pension plan known to man. It’s their reward for having bankrupted us. On Trough Day, you see, they will have been in the House of Commons for six years and can then join their predecessors in fi- nancial bliss, that being all the time necessary to qualify fora pension for life. We have the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) to thank for thinking up Trough Day and for displaying Trough Day signs on the roads of Ottawa. Good, because this isn’t something that Collins or any other MP will be writing home about in those ‘‘Look at me and the P.M. holding hands’’ newsletters that we also pay for. Not that the Baloneyites are any worse than the rest when it comes to fattening themselves from the public purse. All are in the same trough. Remember Dave Barrett of the People’s Party? His first act on becoming premier in 1972 was to pay himself more than Trudeau was getting. But about those pensions. They are the gravy train to end gravy trains. It doesn’t matter how old an MP is. He could be elected at 21 years of age and by the time he’s 27 would hit the jackpot. In the example provided by the NCC, an MP quits at 35 and then draws more than $17,000 a year for the Doug Collins ON THE OTHER HAND next 25 years. When he’s 60, unlimited index- ing starts, which, allowing for an- nual inflation of five per cent, means the pension could triple. If he lives to be 75, he would collect at least $1,600,000. Mary won't get that much, poor girl, because she started later. Same with Chuck Cook. I put some of this stuff to Chuck a few years back. He brushed it off by claiming that MPs paid for their pensions. That’s what they all say. But it depends on what is meant by “paid.” An MP who has been in the House for six years will have con- tributed about $7,000 a year from # salary of $82,700 per annum. Actuarially and actually, that isn’t paying for it at all. What goes in nowhere near covers what comes out. Not even with what the government is supposed to put into the plan but doesn’t. To quote the NCC: ‘No real money is set aside (by the gov- ernmc:it) to fund this indexing. A pensio., plan like the one MPs have given themselves would be il- legal in the private sector.”’ With the possible exception of the perks paid to a couple of cap- tains of industry, there is no other ension plan like it. And we know, don’t we, that many MPs wouldn’t even make good office boys, let alone captains. In 1982 the Auditor General said that $12.5 billion was owed to the pension fund set up to pro- vide for MPs and civil servants (who are also at the trough). But less than six per cent of that fic- tional principal had come from contributions. God bless the deficit. In 1985 the Baloney government promised to ‘‘fund and finance public service pensions in accor- dance with accepted practices and standards of major employers in the private sector.”’ That turned o1! to be another big joke. If you ask an MP how he justifies this pension scandal he wili say he is working for the country and that politics is an uncertain business. Come the next election he could find himself out in the cold without an overcoat. To which I say, with Dr. Johnson, that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Out of the trough, you porkers. a Socreds to meet candidates THE SOCIAL Credit constituency association for the new West Vancouver-Garibaldi riding has scheduled a Sept. 8 luncheon so that party members can meet the various candidates. The luncheon will give West Vancouver party members the opportunity to discuss their concerns and determine the candidates’ positions on issues prior to the riding’s Sept. 12 Socred nominating meeting, which is to be held at West Vancouver Sec- ondary School. Declared candidates thus far include Margot Furk, Gordon Frampton, Dr. Rodney Glynn-Morris, John Wells, Jane Sorko and Richard Begin. at the door. The Sept. 8 luncheon will be held at the Sir Francis Caulfeild restaurant in the Caulfeild shopping centre. Tickets for the luncheon cost $15 and are available SKIERS Good selection, great service, fantastic prices, knowledgeable staff and 34 years experience. That’s what makes our September Ski Sale the best in town. Hurry! Safe on now! 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