Juno News - Conservative MP REFUSES $10K pay hike

00:00:00.000 welcome to the fighter with chris sims i am chris sims i'm the alberta director for the canadian

00:00:11.040 taxpayers federation and oh my goodness do we ever have a big show for you we've actually got

00:00:15.840 breaking news okay as of right now tape time on parliament hill we have a member of parliament

00:00:23.400 a conservative member of parliament from new brunswick refusing his pay hike now you might be

00:00:31.260 thinking well he's just one guy what does it matter oh my goodness this matters okay if you get one

00:00:38.320 member of parliament standing up and saying you know what i'm a backbench mp i'm already making

00:00:44.240 around two hundred thousand dollars a year but you know what i remember what it's like to be a

00:00:49.160 working man or a working woman i was a drywaller for example i'm going to represent the men and

00:00:55.900 women of my riding and i'm going to say no no thanks i don't need an automatic ten thousand 1.00

00:01:02.040 dollar pay raise coming up on april 1st when you get one mp doing that all the other mps start looking

00:01:11.080 around within that caucus and within the other caucuses hey call out to the ndp new democrats

00:01:18.520 you just going to sit here and let a conservative member of parliament be the only one saying

00:01:22.840 i don't need a huge pay hike you're the party of the working man and woman right you're standing up

00:01:28.560 for the little guy now's your chance brothers and sisters stand right up right now and say you know

00:01:34.720 what i am going to be like mike dawson mike dawson a member of parliament from new brunswick

00:01:42.360 the guy saying no so this was a really big deal okay he penned an official letter on his parliament

00:01:49.700 hill stationary to the clerk okay of the house of commons now that sounds boring but it's really

00:01:55.540 important because the clerk is kind of like they're like the administrator okay of the house of commons

00:02:01.940 they know where all the money is going and the stuff's happening and where all the addresses of

00:02:06.620 the offices are all that stuff okay so to have a member of parliament directly and formally inform

00:02:12.920 the clerk of the house of commons i'm not taking this pay increase because i think it's wrong and i

00:02:20.080 was elected to represent the men and women of my riding okay and they're all struggling right now

00:02:25.400 so say no to my pay increase that's huge okay this isn't just kind of sort of saying you're going to

00:02:32.660 go on twitter and maybe donate it to charity at some point no no no this is way further okay and

00:02:38.900 this is where you come in folks before we get to our very excited and very special guest franco okay

00:02:43.920 do us a favor right now do us a couple favors first like this video please when you see it online okay

00:02:51.140 like it because that helps the algorithm wizards share it right away with people who need to know

00:02:56.940 because this is how you get to get a grassroots prairie fire going okay

00:03:00.100 and three email and phone mike dawson i promise you he's getting some gears right now okay from

00:03:10.660 within his own caucus because i'm sure there's a few members of parliament that are like hey who

00:03:14.940 doesn't want an extra 10 grand you know who am i to oppose an automatic pay increase i got other

00:03:19.680 things to do i'm busy with committee or whatever he's getting some gears right now okay and we want

00:03:25.860 him to feel the support of the tax fighter army okay we want him to feel the support of everyday

00:03:31.260 working canadians saying yes this is a good thing to do now i can hear some viewers right now saying

00:03:37.220 who cares it's you know one mp and you know ten thousand dollars isn't really big deal compared to

00:03:42.760 the whole budget no no no okay this is about principle it's about leadership and it's about a culture

00:03:50.140 change so if you can get one mp and then two mps and then a dozen mps all saying no to this pay hike

00:03:59.420 that's how beautiful things happen my friends that is how you see rollbacks on the bureaucracy that is

00:04:05.980 where you see big spending cuts that's where you see them saying you know what government doesn't need

00:04:11.340 to be blowing money on gender rice in vietnam anymore government doesn't need to spend a hundred thousand 1.00

00:04:17.300 dollars documenting the life and times of a grocery cart this is nonsense it is nonsense so

00:04:23.140 let's all stop our member of parliament pay hikes and that then trickles down to the bureaucracy within 0.99

00:04:30.420 that ecosystem that terrarium that is ottawa that is the capital then you get momentum going okay you get

00:04:38.260 that fiscal prudence mindset seeping back in you get journalists asking about it on parliament hill it

00:04:44.820 becomes a cool thing to stand up for taxpayers and to say no to a pay hike so good on mike dawson member

00:04:53.140 of parliament out of new brunswick he's the first one we've seen as of tape time stand up and say no

00:05:00.180 member of parliament pay increase okay so what's happening right now and most importantly how do we

00:05:06.420 make this catch on let's find out joining me now is federal director for the canadian taxpayers federation

00:05:13.380 and my good friend franco terrazano franco it is breaking news right now this is such a big deal uh

00:05:19.540 we've got a member of parliament saying no to this pay hike uh first impressions i mean what a hero

00:05:27.460 conservative mp mike dawson from new brunswick an absolute hero he just wrote uh to the house of

00:05:34.420 commons instructing the government that he wants to reject the upcoming april one member of parliament pay

00:05:40.580 raise and remember folks like every year these politicians pad their pockets with higher pay

00:05:45.860 every year on april one they give themselves a pay raise and this year we've got the conservative

00:05:50.500 member of parliament mike dawson from new brunswick saying enough is enough you know showing proving that

00:05:57.460 he is a true champion for taxpayers by rejecting the upcoming politician pay raise and look folks like

00:06:04.100 this is such a big step this is such a courageous act from mike dawson um and you know he might be

00:06:10.500 alone on this issue as of right yet while we're talking in the house of commons but folks we have to

00:06:15.380 show him that thousands and thousands of canadians are standing with him and we applaud his leadership

00:06:22.020 uh to reject the upcoming pay raise yeah that's a really big point uh as we're recording this it's the

00:06:27.460 middle of question period they've got a big caucus meeting on wednesday mornings that's always uh very

00:06:33.220 free freewheeling okay mps come up to the microphone and they say what they think to their colleagues

00:06:38.020 this is a really big deal and this was nothing to sneeze at right this was a big pay hike that

00:06:43.060 this member of parliament is saying no to yeah so this pay raise so april one every year mps give

00:06:48.180 themselves a raise right every april one all mps take a raise all the parties right so this year's

00:06:54.660 raise uh we estimate would range between an extra eight thousand eight hundred bucks all the way up to

00:07:00.100 an extra seventeen thousand six hundred dollars right so a massive raise so after the april one

00:07:05.300 pay raise folks let me just tell you what their salaries are going to be okay a backbench member

00:07:10.020 of parliament their salary will be about two hundred and eighteen thousand bucks a minister will be

00:07:15.540 collecting around three hundred and twenty two thousand bucks and the prime minister mark carney his

00:07:20.500 salary after the april one pay raise will jump up to about four hundred and thirty seven thousand dollars

00:07:26.420 absolutely gross that is such a crazy pay hike now can you describe for us we're hearing some

00:07:33.060 people saying oh well it's not my fault it's not in my power we have to take the automatic pay raise

00:07:37.940 what are we to do can you get into that a little bit franco yeah i mean look stopping a pay raise is

00:07:43.380 not supposed to be rocket science right like if mps don't know how to stop a pay raise they don't

00:07:49.460 deserve a pay raise right like let's be so for real okay uh so number one uh first of all this has

00:07:55.140 happened in the past where mps have stopped the pay raise right under the harper government

00:07:59.140 uh between 2010 and 2013 they stopped the automatic pay raises so uh it's we've seen it in the past

00:08:05.700 we've seen it done before but let's actually talk tactics how this would happen okay so first of all

00:08:10.980 if you're in the governing liberals just pass legislation and the end the pay raise very simple

00:08:17.380 very simple if you're an opposition member of parliament you know conservative uh bloc ndp i think

00:08:23.620 there's a green still there right you should be campaigning on this every single day and putting

00:08:30.100 pressure on the government to make sure that this pay raise doesn't happen every single day in the

00:08:35.380 house of commons you should be calling out the government every single day you should be tweeting

00:08:39.540 about it on social media even holding press conferences saying enough is enough politicians

00:08:44.740 should not be taking more money from taxpayers so anyone out there who thinks they're the smart guy

00:08:49.460 right pretending like oh they can't do it come on this isn't rocket science a b this has been done

00:08:56.180 before between 2010 and 2013 where they stopped the automatic pay raises and c all mps should be

00:09:02.500 pressuring the government every single day to do what's right and to stop the raises a couple of

00:09:07.300 things a they are legislatures which means lawmakers okay they're the rule makers they're the ones that

00:09:13.540 can go in and change the rules okay b they're a member of parliament parley to talk so better start

00:09:20.420 talking better say that you don't want this pay hike and also just how the sausage is made on

00:09:25.700 parliament hill there are entire departments responsible for this so it was really interesting

00:09:30.900 to see this member of parliament address his letter to the clerk okay that's basically the administrator

00:09:37.220 of the house of commons it's how things work on parliament hill also you could go to the treasury

00:09:42.180 and say you know what i don't want this taken out of the treasury and given into my account

00:09:47.220 put a stop to this like there's all sorts of levers that these members of parliament could

00:09:52.500 be pulling right now in order to take this kind of leadership right oh i mean look like like i said

00:09:58.900 this is not rocket science are you kidding me stopping a pay raise like like what this is the heart

00:10:04.020 like they're not curing cancer here they're just simply not padding their pockets with more of

00:10:08.100 taxpayers money okay and also too i've heard some mps also say oh don't worry we'll get the raise and

00:10:13.620 then we'll donate to charity okay well number one you're even a backbench mp their salary is about

00:10:19.940 210 000 bucks they can donate to local charities in their communities without taking more money from

00:10:24.820 taxpayers okay but the second thing folks is even if they were to donate that money to charity by taking

00:10:31.060 the member of parliament pay raise they will get higher pension payouts in retirement okay yep that's

00:10:38.900 an important thing to remember but here fundamentally there's two other things let's talk about the first

00:10:43.380 one give it some time to breathe we'll go into the second one okay the first point is that in a democracy

00:10:49.780 canadians are supposed to be the boss and when the boss says no pay raise that should mean no pay 0.96

00:10:55.620 raise well every single year we put out polling from leger a reputable national polling firm that

00:11:01.540 shows about 80 percent of canadians oppose the mp pay raise every single year so every single year

00:11:07.540 the boss says no and then members of parliament your elected representative ignores what you say and

00:11:14.660 stuffs their pocket with higher pay anyways yeah that's a huge one um i gotta say there is in his letter

00:11:21.940 okay i'm gonna see if i can actually pull it up here because i want to actually read out

00:11:25.300 exactly what he said yeah it's when he talks about representing working men and women of his

00:11:29.940 riding it really got me because he talked about being a drywaller and my brother's a drywaller

00:11:37.380 you know him you've met him um yeah real beauty um he works there in ottawa downtown drives back

00:11:43.780 home to our empire every day gets up at three in the morning every single friggin day um just to be

00:11:49.060 able to make rent okay for his family um to have this member of parliament remember what that's like

00:11:55.700 and say you know what i'm good 200 grand a year for a backbench mp that's good i don't need to dip

00:12:02.340 into this trough anymore i don't need to take this pay raise anymore just bravo absolute kudos bravo i

00:12:10.100 really hope that others in his caucus follow suit okay and just a note um i really hope that he doesn't

00:12:19.780 get any chirping if he gets any chirping this is just a note folks everybody watching this you staffers

00:12:25.700 if he gets any chirping in caucus we're gonna find out about it and guess what the tax fighter army we

00:12:32.020 want to know because we want members of parliament from all parties to be leaders like this and to

00:12:37.860 actually stand up for their constituents so uh you don't got nothing nice to say better keep your mouth

00:12:42.980 shut on this amen sister i love it i love it chris you said it so well i mean look i love the

00:12:50.180 leadership angle it's it really matters but also too there's a real policy implication of this okay

00:12:56.820 because here's the thing when mps pad their pockets with higher pay every year the bureaucrats demand the

00:13:03.700 same taxpayer treatment and this isn't theoretical we got our hands on demands from government union

00:13:09.620 bosses before they went on strike i believe it was in 2023 and those government union bosses pointed

00:13:15.940 to the annual salaries and a salary increase that mps give themselves every single year as a reason why

00:13:22.500 the bureaucrats should take more money from taxpayers okay so when politicians pad their pockets with higher 1.00

00:13:28.340 pay the bureaucrats also demand more money from canadian taxpayers and it is the bureaucracy that is soaking

00:13:34.340 canadian taxpayers right the federal government added a hundred thousand bureaucrats in the last 10 years

00:13:39.300 the cost of the bureaucracy went up 80 percent in 10 years meanwhile services are horrendous

00:13:46.100 okay so look it's it's not just a leadership is important but it's not just about leadership

00:13:51.940 mps need to stop stuffing their pockets with higher pay so they have the moral majority to force the

00:13:57.300 bureaucrats to take a cut and oh boy do the bureaucrats need to take a cut yeah we got about a hundred

00:14:02.900 thousand extra of them and their costs have gone crazy pants way up i just heard you on a podcast

00:14:07.940 pointing out what is it eighty percent eighty percent in ten years gross that is so gross um speaking

00:14:14.420 of over ten years i wanted to point this out not to pick a sore spot but correct me if i'm wrong but

00:14:20.100 all during the lockdowns right when people were losing their jobs when industries are being shut down

00:14:25.380 really bad times yep uh mps kept on taking those pay hikes didn't they every single year they took a

00:14:32.100 raise every single year they took thousands of dollars more okay the pandemic didn't stop them

00:14:38.580 from taking a pay raise lockdowns didn't stop them from taking a pay raise 40 year high inflation didn't

00:14:45.220 stop them from taking a pay raise a housing crisis didn't stop them from taking a pay raise a potential

00:14:51.460 tariff war trade dispute didn't stop them from taking a pay raise and folks only a couple months ago

00:14:58.900 prime minister mark carney told you to brace for sacrifices and oddly in a couple months from now

00:15:06.420 these politicians are getting ready to give themselves another raise gross i will point out

00:15:13.700 that during the lockdowns correct me if i'm wrong here man but uh new zealand yeah remember new zealand

00:15:20.180 during the lockdowns yeah they took a pay cut yeah big one i think jacinda ardern i think it was around

00:15:25.140 like 20 percent yeah that they announced yeah it was it was a big one yeah lots of us took pay cuts

00:15:30.260 okay let alone pay freezes all right and to see finally though you can if you can tell that we're

00:15:34.820 ecstatic that's because it's true okay franco uh you and your team especially there in ottawa you have

00:15:40.580 been hammering this home every single year and to your point that you said on the podcast you know bueller

00:15:45.540 bueller like there's been no takers we are so relieved to see mike dawson member of parliament he's from the

00:15:53.300 maritimes right new brunswick love it uh to see him stand up and do this um okay let's get into future

00:16:00.820 speculation are we hopeful the royal we are we hopeful that there will be another few mps i wish

00:16:06.980 everybody would other yeah i mean stand up and say no i hope so and i hope it happens fast folks and

00:16:13.460 let's talk about what we have to do as you know canadian citizens canadian taxpayers trying to push

00:16:18.340 ottawa in the right direction folks so so right now like if you have some time folks like seriously

00:16:23.300 send an email give them a call mike dawson from new brunswick a conservative member of parliament

00:16:27.780 and just say like look man thank you so much for what you did we've got your back it's so

00:16:31.780 important right now because look i don't know what's going on in the back rooms obviously like

00:16:35.620 i'm not privy to that but i bet you a couple of those politicians who want to pad their pockets

00:16:39.860 with higher pay are pretty upset with him you know i don't know what's going on but i can imagine

00:16:44.100 some of them might be giving him some grief right now and folks it's so important for us

00:16:48.180 immediately uh to show dawson that thousands and thousands of canadians are standing with him

00:16:53.780 and appreciate his leadership because what he is doing does take courage right to to be the person

00:16:59.620 who says look we shouldn't be getting a raise you know what i mean so that takes courage the next

00:17:04.180 thing that we got to do is we got to i think we got to push the other the leaders of the political

00:17:08.660 parties right i think that's where we got to go next get them to show leadership to say we're

00:17:13.700 all going to oppose it and we have to create that pressure to force the government to stop these

00:17:19.540 pay raises so i think that's kind of where we have to go next in this fight folks uh you can just go

00:17:25.620 it's free okay to phone and email your member of parliament it is free even to drop a letter in the

00:17:30.500 mail seriously if you want to write a handwritten note and send it to parliament hill you don't even

00:17:34.660 need to put a stamp on it okay and to franco's point okay i have worked in those halls okay i've

00:17:40.820 answered those phones um it's gonna be dicey for this mp for a little while okay he's gonna be

00:17:46.740 getting a bit of stink eye he's gonna be getting a bit of a runaround okay make sure that you call

00:17:52.020 that office you email that office mike dawson okay look it up on parl.gc.ca tell them hey man this is

00:17:59.220 how i'm struggling this is how much money i make good for you thank you for not taking this pay hike

00:18:04.580 because if you get that inbox filled it's going to give him the courage to stand up and keep doing

00:18:09.700 this and it's going to be contagious folks that courage will be contagious uh any last notes franco

00:18:14.500 i know you got to go no i mean folks we just have to keep the pressure up okay we have to keep the

00:18:20.500 pressure up you know go on social media have mike dawson's back push your member of parliament

00:18:26.180 right push the leaders of all the political parties say enough is enough like we got to share

00:18:31.540 this we got to keep building on the momentum clear momentum let's get a big victory on this because

00:18:36.820 again folks at the end of the day we got to push these politicians to stop padding their pockets with

00:18:41.460 higher pay and we got to push the bureaucracy then to also take a cut thank you so much franco and

00:18:46.980 folks to his point also to build on it this isn't just about the money okay this isn't just about the

00:18:52.100 thousands of dollars that this mp is saying no to and thank you so much franco for joining us today

00:18:56.740 this isn't just about the money for this one mp okay this is about principle okay this is indicative

00:19:03.380 of a behavior and a culture of entitlement on parliament hill in ottawa if we can get a critical

00:19:10.420 mass of members of parliament okay saying you know what enough is enough i don't need this pay increase

00:19:17.300 okay i'm saying no to this i'm going to the clerk i'm going to the treasury i'm speaking to the media

00:19:22.900 i'm going online i'm saying no to this pay increase that is a shift in the culture in ottawa

00:19:29.860 okay and that will send a strong message to the government to the bureaucracy to the privy council

00:19:37.140 okay that entire ecosystem that's in ottawa of time to stop this time to stop the gravy train time to

00:19:45.140 show leadership and then you get compounding savings it's not just the you know ten thousand dollars or

00:19:52.260 whatever for this one mp hopefully it's those tens of thousands of dollars for all the mps saying no

00:19:58.020 to the pay increase and then that has a beautiful ripple effect okay i promise you it does it changes

00:20:04.420 the culture in our capitals when this stuff happens so do us two favors okay go to the parliament hill

00:20:11.780 website it's parl.gc.ca click on mp find mike dawson send him a note okay that's number one and two you're

00:20:22.500 hearing this breaking news right now on juno news okay juno news is independent journalism it is not

00:20:28.660 funded by the government that's why the taxpayers federation we have our own show here it's so we

00:20:34.260 can muster the troops and bring up things like the tax fighter army okay because this is direct

00:20:40.020 grassroots democracy so thank you so much to juno news for broadcasting this clarion call okay and

00:20:46.820 this call out to you now now is the time tax fighter army now is the time to email and phone your mp

00:20:53.380 and saying hey be like mike refuse the hike

Juno News - February 11, 2026

Conservative MP REFUSES $10K pay hike

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