When I want to know what “everyday Ontarians” think about various issues, I talk to my hockey buddies. They’re my best focus group. Most of them don’t follow politics too much, but can whip themselves into quite a lather when they think politicians are doing indefensible things.
Over the years, they have complained to me about how fat the pensions are for members of the legislature, and how those MPPs get unjustified pay increases all the time.
I’ve responded with this: “Guys, I hate to interrupt this really good rant but let me just share some facts as opposed to opinions. MPPs haven’t had a pension in 30 years, and they haven’t had a pay increase in 15 years.”
Then I enjoyed the looks on their faces as they sheepishly acknowledged they didn’t really know what they were saying; they were just assuming that was the case.
“Sorry, guys, but Premier Mike Harris eliminated MPP pensions in 1995 in a fit of populist rage,” I’ve explained. “And despite some attempts to figure out how to give MPPs a raise, it hasn’t happened in ages.”
That same conversation seems to happen every year or so, as my buddies either forget or new guys need to hear it for the first time.
But something changed this year. Premier Doug Ford came to realize that he had enough political currency to bring back the MPP pension. He may have realized that the situation is unfair: federal and municipal politicians get a pension, why not provincial ones? The reason could also be more practical: recruiters from all parties say it’s increasingly difficult to convince people to sacrifice their prime earning years for a job with no security — or pension.
The conventional wisdom has always been that no premier would risk bringing back the pension; the public would rise in anger and punish the leader at the ballot box. Except when Ford made his announcement, the public…mostly yawned. No one organized demonstrations. Those elected in the February 2025 election will now be eligible for a new MPP pension plan, and Ontarians don’t seem to mind.
Enter the law of unintended consequences. Anyone who qualified before 1995 already had access to a pension. And with the new announcement, the Class of 2025 will get one as well.
But what about MPPs who sat between those years? Apparently, they’re out of luck. And they’re not happy about it. And a few dozen of them gathered in Kingston earlier this month for a meeting of the Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians to discuss what they might do about their circumstances.
The issue of pension-less MPPs garnered attention last year, when former MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti (one of nearly 50 Liberals who lost their seats in the 2018 wipeout) was discovered to be broke and living in a homeless shelter. Politicians from all parties passed the hat and raised $25,000 to get the former Liberal MPP at least partially back on his feet. But the story shone a light on how problematic income security can be for defeated politicians, particularly those with few job prospects.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” says Peter Shurman, a PC MPP from 2007 to 2013. “Politicians in every other province and the federal House of Commons get them. And it's there so that they don't fall between the cracks at the end of the day.”
The former parliamentarians resolved to officially ask Premier Ford to revisit the pension issue and include them. Shurman even texted Ford directly — several times — but says the normally responsive Ford didn’t reply.
“I let it go for a month,” Shurman explains, “and then I wrote a text in capital letters. I guess you'd say I yelled at the premier. And I didn’t call him premier.” (Apparently, Shurman called him “Dougie.”)
Shurman says his phone rang 10 seconds later. He says Ford explained that he sympathized but was powerless to do anything about it.
Shurman responded: "Well, Doug, I'm always going to be a Conservative, and I'm always going to vote for you. However, on this one, I'm going to fight you. And I think a lot of other people are thinking the same thing.”
So far, the government isn't budging. Colin Blachar, a spokesman for Ontario’s Ministry of Finance, says, “After examining a range of options, the new pension plan represents a fair and reasonable path forward that allows sitting members to pay into the new program while former MPPs can utilize the retirement savings arrangement that was previously in place.”
In other words, status quo for MPPs who sat between 1995-2025.
Shurman argues that the number of people affected by this exclusion is not only small, but diminishing. He is about to turn 78 next month, and while he says he doesn’t particularly need the money, he knows others who very much could use the, say, $3,500 a month to keep their heads above water.
“It’s not an outrageous number,” he says. “I mean, it’s probably $10 million in an overall budget of close to $300 billion. Come on.”
I asked Shurman if he thinks extending pensions to former parliamentarians could be a political problem for Ford. Unequivocally no, he says. Ford gave pensions and salary increases to the current crop of MPPs and “nobody made a fuss, because nobody realized that it had been static for 20 years.”
That was certainly the case for my hockey buddies.
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