Tory MP Concerned Proposed Elections Act Revision a Pension Grab by Liberals, NDP

Elections Canada workers place signage at the Halifax Convention Centre in Halifax as they prepare for the polls to open in the federal election on Sept. 20, 2021. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

A Tory MP is questioning an Elections Act revision proposed this week by the Liberal government that would allow dozens of MPs to qualify for pensions, even if they lose the next election.

It’s a move that Conservative MP Damien Kurek questioned as a potential conflict of interest during a March 22 Ethics Committee meeting.

“The Liberals tabled an amendment to the Canada Elections Act. And in that, on page two, there was a very interesting change to the election date,” Mr. Kurek said.

Proposed amendments to the Act, introduced on March 20, would change the date of the next federal election to Oct. 27, 2025. While Section 1 of the Act stipulates that a general election must be held on the third Monday of October, the Liberals acknowledged that many communities will be celebrating the holiday of Diwali at that time.

“Therefore, a one-time change to the date is proposed so that the potential election would not conflict with Diwali. Instead, the election would be held the following Monday,” the amendment reads.

An Elections Canada spokesman told The Epoch Times he could not comment “on the government’s intention behind the legislation as currently written.”

Mr. Kurek asked Ethics Commissioner Konrad Winrich von Finckenstein during the meeting if MPs voting on an amendment to the Canada Elections Act that would “be the difference between them either qualifying or not qualifying for their pension” would be a conflict.

Mr. von Finckenstein said it would not be a conflict of interest because MPs have the power to make rules on when elections are held.

“It’s something that you’re charged to do, and somebody would expect you to do it in the public interest and not your personal interest,” he added.

Liberal MP Iqra Khalid said the change to the election date was being done for “hundreds of thousands” of Canadians celebrating Diwali, and rejected any suggestions of “nefariousness and perhaps conspiracy theories.”

The third Monday of October presented a “direct conflict” in 2019 with two Jewish holidays: Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Elections Canada CEO Stéphane Perrault ultimately decided against changing the date, because it would have “negatively impacted the ability of Elections Canada to provide accessible voting services across the country.”

“However, in consultation with the affected communities, we put in place many alternate voting options to accommodate the needs of electors,” Elections Canada’s website reads.

Following that election, Mr. Perrault committed to a post-election review of the fixed election date that would take religious holidays and cultural traditions into account.

Pensions for MPs

According to the Members of Parliament Pension Plan, MPs 55 years of age and older qualify after six years of service. According to Mr. Kurek, the original election date of Oct. 20, 2025, would have meant MPs elected on Oct. 21, 2019, would fail to qualify.

The latest electoral projections show that with the Conservatives holding 42 percent of Canadians’ support compared with 24 percent of the Liberals, up to 100 seats from the governing party could be slashed. These include several Cabinet ministers, such as Treasury Board President Anita Anand and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, both of whom were elected in 2019.

With the NDP sitting at 19 percent in the polls, several of their MPs elected in 2019 are also projected to lose their seats, including NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Matthew Green, and Heather McPherson.

During the last election, held on Sept. 20, 2021, many MPs who were elected back on Oct. 19, 2015, also failed to qualify for pensions.