By Doug Draper
If you need one more reason to write off this Liberal government in Ontario, this may be it.
Remember Eleanor Slithered? I’m sure our American readers wouldn’t. But they may take some disquieting comfort (or may be just as depressed) in knowing that there are governments on the Canadian side of the border that are just as willing to reward scumbags from past administrations with lucrative pension packages.
Obviously one Ontario government that has no bones about doing it is that of Premier Dalton McGuinty and one of his senior cabinet ministers, St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley who, in his particular case, has always tried to come off as if he gives a fig about common people while obviously not carrying about kissing up to the privileged like Clitheroe with generous rewards at the expense of common people.
Getting back to who Clitheroe is or was, she ran the former Ontario Hydro (a publicly owned corporation) until 2002 until the former Conservative government of outgoing and incoming premiers Harris and Ernie Eves, with the current Conservative leader Tim Hudak right there in cabinet, almost had no choice but to fire here out the door over reports of hefty perks she was receiving, by way of travel, etc., on top of her $2.2 million salary.
The McGuinty Liberals, including Niagara’s Bradley, were just as righteous back then in calling for Clitheroe’s head. But now we find out, according to a top-of-front-page story in the June 4 edition of The Toronto Star, that McGuinty, Bradley and the others have been continuing to feed Clitheroe a monthly pension of $25,637.08 the former Conservative of Harris/Eves/Hudak went along with, and one the McGuinty/Bradley gang has continued to feed her.
I’d like to ask how someone like Bradley would look his constituents square in the face and explain to them why this kind of “pension” (about $300.000 a year) is okay for this person while so many of the rest of us of Niagarians are struggling to get by on a median income for the region of about $35,000 a year. Does he still try to be a ‘good ol’ boy’ and go to all the local sport events, etc. If so, don’t let him get away without pressing him on whose side is he on. Is he on the side of Clitheroe’s or his buddy Debbie Sevenpifer from the Niagara Health System, or ours. Depending on his answer, you know how to vote in the 2011 provincial election.
Meanwhile, Clitheroe who, according to the story in The Star, is now functioning as an Anglican priest in the Niagara community of Smithville, and is in the process of contesting her pension, paid for through our taxdollars.
Yes, Clitheroe has a case before the Ontario Court of Appeal, claiming she should be entitled to at least $33,644.21 a month. Lawyers fighting against her appeal argue that most Ontarions could never dream of having those kind of figures in their pension for a whole year, yet alone a month.
That is most certainly so. But I will bet you that McGuinty and Bradley will cave and give Clitheroe what she wants. it to her. Why? Because they want it for themselves? That is why.
Because it is all about too many of these so-called servants of the public at the provincial and federal levels jamming as much of our money into their pockets and the pockets of their friends as they can. They, like Clitheroe, are all birds of a feather, and to hell with the rest of us.
By the way, Clitheroe’s move to religion only feeds into a belief this commentator already has that about the last refuge of a scoundrel is rapping themselves around ‘the Lord’.
For those of you on the Buffalo/Niagara Falls, N.Y. side of the border, you must have similar stories. Please feel free to share them either through a comment or post we can run here as a story or commentary of your own.
(Click on www.niagaraatlarge.com for Niagara At Large and more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
My God, what next? I truly can’t believe this story! I live in Smithville and had no idea that this was going on.
But let me see if I’ve got this straight – someone out there actually HAS a job, it apparantly pays between $50-60,000 per year, as a MINISTER of all things. I’m sure one of their duties would be to offer support and hope to families who’ve lost jobs, pensions, RRSPs and savings and can barely put food on the table.
Yet they feel shortchanged by a former employer only paying them a monthly pension of $25,600, and feel it should be more like $33,600 monthly.
Well try as I might, I can’t seem to even come close to sympathizing with this woman’s predicament. In fact I am appalled. Were I a member of her church, I would immediately stop attending (and contributing). Despite her impressive resume and numerous academic credentials, in no way is she qualified to offer spiritual advice or moral guidance to me. To whom much is given, much is expected.
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I guess her ministry doesn’t include a vow of poverty. I read this in the Star and would like to say I was shocked but nothing to do with government and big corporations surprises me any more.
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I would like to be able to say that this is truly unbelievable, but unfortunately it is not. Look at any annual report of a public company, the ” sunshine list” or numerous other similar situations in the past and the same sort of incredible compensation is apparent. The arrrogant sense of entitlement is disgusting and so out of touch with reality as to be mind-boggling, but what is to be done to stop it????
Jim Armstrong
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Jim,
Don’t dismay – there’s lots that can be done to stop the outrageousness. Here in West Lincoln, we seem to be emerging as the new hot spot destination for former GTA civil servants with over-the-top government salaries. We have the hilarious Ms. Clitheroe working as an Anglican minister while appealing for a fatter government pension. And we have our very own CAO Derrick Thomson making the Sunshine List by earning over $128,000 in 2009, his first full year on the job, For a small municipality (pop. 13,200) with a vast area, this is quite a burden for our taxpayers.
But if you really want to change things, it requires some effort. This being an election year, your timing couldn’t be better. Depending on your degree of disgust, if you don’t like what you see, run for office in this fall’s election. That’s really the only way to stop all this silliness – vote ’em all out!
If you’re hesitant, I encourage you to google “campaign schools” in Ontario. There are several being run this summer throughout the province by various groups. They’re a fabulous primer on how to run, or how to help someone else run. And most of them are free! And if you’re still not convinced that you can do a better job, attend a few local and regional council meetings to see the shenanigans first hand! That will undoubtedly do the trick!
But if running is out of the question, then find a suitable candidate with similar values and support them in their quest.
The only way to change the status quo is to offer folks a solid, better alternative. And with all the wretched excess around us these days, the timing has never been more ripe for change. Good luck and go for it!
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Didn’t Jesus say, “You cannot serve both God and Mammon” ? So, Rev. Clitheroe…which is it?
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