Tory MP Refuses Pay Rise

What?:

A New Brunswick MP says he’s asked the House of Commons to freeze his salary before parliamentarians are set to get an annual pay raise in April.

Mike Dawson, the Conservative representing Miramichi—Grand Lake says “at a time when everyday Canadians are struggling to keep up with rising cost of living” he cannot in good conscience accept a wage increase.

It’s a move that Dawson is doing, so far, on his own.

In a letter provided to National Post, Dawson has asked the clerk of the House of Commons to “make the necessary arrangements with the payroll and benefits administration to ensure that this is done.”

“It is frankly distasteful that Parliamentarians are set to receive a raise while the working man and woman in this country hasn’t seen a decent raise in decades,” reads the letter.

Members of Parliament are set to receive a 4.2 per cent raise on April 1. They currently make a base salary of $209,800.

That equates to a $8,811 jump.

It’s a legislated increase that’s indexed to wage settlements in the private sector, according to the House of Commons.

That said, it’s even more for some MPs as there are additional payouts, depending on a politician’s role.

A committee chair’s salary, for example, is currently $223,900, while a cabinet minister is paid $309,700.

 

Is he daring to be principled?

 

 

Also:

The Privy Council Office (PCO) confirmed to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) that the Governor General will get a $15,800 pay raise this year — current GG Mary Simon’s fifth automatic pay raise since entering Rideau Hall in 2021. ...

This year’s raise will put Simon’s annual take-home salary at $393,800 — which the PCO said is determined by provisions in the Governor General’s Act.

According to Statistics Canada, the average annual salary for Canadians is about $75,000.

In 2025, the Governor General got a $15,200 raise, compared to the $11,200 pay bump she got in 2024.

The GG’s salary — established at $270,602 on Jan. 1, 2014 — is subject to annual raises based on a complicated formula multiplying the previous year’s salary by “the lesser of 107% and the percentage that the industrial aggregate for the first adjustment year is of the industrial aggregate for the second adjustment year.”

The salary has increased by $91,000 since 2019.