Don Martin leads the charge against MP pensions:

In 75 days, another 75 MPs will join that most exclusive of retirement clubs by qualifying for the safest pension on the planet.

The surviving MP class of 2004 will have reached six years of elected service on June 24 and thus qualify for a minimum $27,000 parliamentary pension at age 55 that will, in some cases, hit six figures by the time they are unelected.

Here’s the thing. It’s not really the “safest pension in the planet”. Only 70% of the new MPs from the class of ’04 will have lasted in Ottawa long enough to get their pensions. Twice during this period they will have had to fight just to keep their jobs.

They’ll have worked long hours – for most of them, miles away from their homes and families. A good percentage of them endured ridicule, some had their lives destroyed.

Yeah, our MPs frustrate the hell out of me. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to pay them a good salary, and to offer a pension to individuals who are serving their country with little to no job security.