I don’t often write about Ontario politics, but I did want to make a couple of remarks on the fact that Doug Ford pushed through both pay raises for MPPs, as well as a restoration of their pensions, and this actually a Good Thing. MPPs have had their salaries frozen since 2009, when Dalton McGuinty froze them in response to the global financial crisis (which is always one of those dumb populist moves that astroturf groups like the so-called “Canadian Taxpayers Federation” demand, and it always ends up bad). Ford’s legislation will peg MPP salaries at 75 percent of those of MPs, who already have their own salaries adjusted automatically per a particular formula, and it pegs itself to something like judges’ salaries, all in an attempt to depoliticise the issue (and has largely been successful).

The thing about salaries for elected officials is that you want them to be high enough to discourage them from either freelancing on the job, or being susceptible to financial inducements (aka bribery) by keeping them at a reasonably comfortable level (without being obviously lavish or ostentatious). And frankly, the fact that anyone who is in a profession, like a doctor or lawyer, needing to take a pay cut to get into elected politics is usually a bad sign, because it discourages them from running or contributing in a meaningful way. And as for pensions, which Mike Harris killed in more populist excesses, it again helps to keep MPPs from pursuing other remuneration given the low salaries they’re already accepting, when they’re not earning pensionable income from their previous employers. Over time, there have been complaints that certain MPPs wouldn’t retire because they couldn’t afford to, and there was recently one story about a former Toronto MPP who wound up sleeping in a shelter after a financial collapse from a divorce. This was pretty sad indictment of how petty Ontario’s legislature had become on these questions.

This having been said, I’m still dubious about Ford’s motives, given that he has stuffed his Cabinet with MPPs in order to give them raises while going on about how hard they work. This feels a little bit like spoils of war as the province’s books get in worse and worse shape, but again, this is still the right thing to do. I know the books are a mess, and hospitals are crumbling, and they’re dismantling post-secondary education, but not giving these raises doesn’t fix any of that. Let’s hope that we’re not going to witness a bunch more hand-wringing about how nest-feathering, otherwise I can see the dumb populism making things even worse, as they force MPPs to start competing over who does sackcloth and ashes best.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-05-29T21:27:21.302Z

Ukraine Dispatch

President Zelenskyy says that Russia is engaging in yet another deception by not handing over its peace settlement proposal ahead of their planned talks.

Good reads:

• The Trump fentanyl and “Liberation Day” tariffs are back on after a federal appeals court granted a stay while it considers the matter. (Five things to know here).
• At the CANSEC security convention, minister wound up avoiding the media and any questions on future procurement programmes.
• Saab and Canadian firm CAE will work together to build submarine training simulators for the next generation of submarines for the Royal Canadian Navy.
• It looks like the government will put forward a bill for its plan to streamline project approvals to put them under a single minister and approval process.
• The Task Force for Housing and Climate report finds that while the federal government is doing an okay job, provinces are failing, especially Alberta.
• The Ethics Commissioner tabled his sponsored travel report, and 30 MPs accepted $230, 000 in free trip, most of it sponsored by Taiwan.
• A man in Prescott, Ontario, has pleaded guilty to uttering death threats to Conservative MP Michael Barrett.
• The Bloc have once again tabled a bill to protect Supply Management, because of course they did (for all the good it would do).
• Saskatchewan has declared its own state of emergency due to wildfires.
• Althia Raj has a long-read about the last election, from the days before Trudeau’s resignation until election night. (Parts one, two and three).

Odds and ends:

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