New Bloc Leader Already Working on Her Pension

My least favorite politician is Martine Ouellet, the newly minted leader of the Bloc Quebecois who is, although a double university graduate, one of the dumbest people to ever grace the halls of the National Assembly.

She is the absolute definition of of an idiot, spouting off utter separatist nonsense that only fanatical supporters can buy.
According to her, Quebec contributes more in taxes to Ottawa than it receives in benefits and that every province is favoured over Quebec.
She is opposed of course to the Energy East pipeline on the grounds that it is “the biggest threat to potable water in Quebec.”
"She called on sovereignists to rally behind her to protect the “green jewel” that is Quebec and put an end to tax havens and the loss of corporate headquarters from the province."

Quebec as a "green jewel" Really???

She pledges to shut down the world's tax havens and to force companies to keep their head offices in Quebec. I'm not kidding. She says all this with a straight face.

The Parti Quebecois was thrilled to dump her and her claim that the PQ was conspiring against her is the one thing which she repeats that is 100% believable. 

For those new to the blog, I want to cite this interview that I translated a while back where a Radio-Canada interviewer tries to keep a straight face, but clearly astounded at her stupidity.

Yup, the new leader of the Bloc Quebecois thinks that by Ottawa guaranteeing Newfoundland's $900 million loan, it costs taxpayers $900 million.
Someone should have explained it to her in terms she might understand, so here goes.

Your brother goes to the bank to get a car loan, but since he has bad credit, the bank wants to charge a much higher interest rate. But the banker says that if you (the sister with  the good credit) guarantees the loan, the bank will offer the lower interest rate instead.
Now Martine, listen to this..... If you brother repays the loan without defaulting the guarantee COSTS NOTHING!!!!

This is the same woman that is promising to nationalize the internet.

At any rate, let's talk about the fact that she is not giving up her Quebec National Assembly seat where she now sits as an independent, a situation that hasn't gone over big with any of the political parties who view the idea of holding down two full time jobs rather deceitful. Taking advantage of a loophole that allows members of the National Assembly to have a second job, the situation is somewhat of an embarrassment to the institution.

Now the two years salary she'll collect from the National assembly while she is leader of the Bloc Quebecois has a much larger effect on her income than you can imagine.

Ouellet  will be 48 next month and that number is important because in two years she is eligible for a National Assembly pension. There is a provision that an ex-MNA can receive her pension at fifty years instead of sixty, with a 25% penalty.

Now MNAs earn a 4% indexed credit on their salary for each year they serve.
Simply put, if a MNA has served ten years in the Assembly and made $100,000 in each of those years, she'd be entitled to a $40,000 pension at 60 years old or a $30,000 a year pension if retiring early at fifty years old.
The two years that Ouellet will sit in the National Assembly while leader of the BQ, will earn her another six or eight thousand dollars in pension for life.

Ouellet will be pension eligible just about the time she'll be out of a job in Quebec and ready to run federally as a BQ candidate.
If she wins a seat in Ottawa, she can start working on a federal pension and delay until sixty years old, her indexed $40,000 Quebec pension.

For her ten years of tenure in Quebec's National Assembly, she can collect a lifetime indexed pension which could run thirty or forty years and which would cost Quebec taxpayers over a million present dollars.
But readers, that's not the end of it. No sireee!
Let us consider Ouellet winning a seat in Ottawa where she can start working on an even more lucrative Parliamentary pension, one which she'd be eligible for in six years.
But should she be defeated, after say, five years all is not lost.

She could invoke the buy-back clause in her Quebec National Assembly pension plan whereby ex-MNA members who leave and take another designated eligible job, can continue contributing to their Quebec MNA pension, or can make a lump sum payment to come up to speed. And by the way, sitting as an MP in Ottawa is considered an eligible job.
So by contributing a lump sum  amount, equal to what she would have paid into the Quebec plan had she remained a member of the National Assembly instead of sitting in Ottawa, she could add those five years to her Quebec pension.
A fantastic deal when one considers that the lump sum payment is a fraction of what the pension is worth.
It's calculated that in Ottawa, taxpayers pay $25 for every $1 contributed by the beneficiary of a Parliamentary pension.

Quebec is not as bad as that, but pretty bad just the same.
In the ten years that Martine Ouellet sat as a member of the National Assembly, she contributed about $100,000 herself total towards her pension, a pension which is worth roughly about a million dollars over her projected retirement life. It means that taxpayers are paying about $10 for each dollar she contributed. Yikes!!!

Good luck Martine!!!!