Note to politicians: It is not meant to be a full-time gig

By Jim Harrison - Kamloops This Week - January 20, 2008

Regardless of what many politicians think, theirs is not exactly the most revered profession. In fact, from the perspective of some people, they’re seen as self-serving and short-sighted, with an overblown sense of importance. Moreover, they are at times thought to have their snouts too far into the public purse. Even in municipal politics, where the emphasis ought to be on local issues, elected officials find every available excuse to see the world on the public purse. Kamloops Mayor Terry Lake’s present trip excepted — since he’s paid his own way — others have demonstrated an unseemly propensity for useless travel. Whether it’s looking at sewage-disposal methods in the southern United States or flying off to China, Japan, Thailand or South Africa, all have produced exactly zilch benefit for the poor taxpayer suckered into paying the bill.

Now councillors in Surrey have taken the business of milking taxpayers a step further. They’ve joined Vancouver in voting themselves severance pay. In the event voters decide to give them the boot, or when they quit, Surrey’s elected officials will walk away with just over $5,000 for every year of service. It’s about fairness, they say. And, they add, it’s something that is needed to attract good people to office. That’s the kind of self-serving logic farmers could use to fertilize their fields. There needs to be adequate compensation, to be sure, but politics was never meant to be a full-time job — and it should not come with the equivalent benefits.