It’s easy to criticise politicians as overpaid scoundrels feeding off the public trough. But that says more about us than about them.
We wonder just how many of us private citizens would behave responsibly under the same conditions. We bet more than a few generators would wind up in private homes. All of us have seen examples of employees who pilfer small items like stationery from their offices, and some of us, if we had the nerve, would probably do more.
Not to say that politicians are overworked and underpaid. It seems like nice work if you can get it. An ordinary MLA in Nova Scotia makes more than nearly all salaried employees in the workforce except physicans and some university professors.
But it doesn’t seem entirely like they’re in it for the money. From the outside, it looks like an MLAs life is filled with meetings, phone calls, consultations and endless amounts of rubber chicken. Some people spend years volunteering in local party offices just to get the right to run for the job, usually at great personal expense.
Most MLAs seem to be in the game for different reasons. Ego maybe, or the desire to make a difference or even do some good.
The expense rules for MLAs need to be clarified, but even politicians deserve the benefit of the doubt, and maybe a little respect.
