Looking for work on the job a perk limited to politics

Incumbents’ job search done at taxpayers’ expense

Let’s say you aspired to move up in your career but finding the right position was a time-consuming process, almost a full-time job itself. You had to do a lot of research, meet with prospective employers and other people working in the field, prepare for and attend interviews. Would your current employer let you do that during regular office hours, with full pay and benefits, letting you show up for work only when you could fit it around your job-hunting?

And if you failed in achieving your goal, would your boss give you a few additional months off to lick your wounds and think about what you’d like to do next?

If you answered no, you live in the real world. If you answered yes, you’re probably a politician.

Right now, there are a couple of hundred MPs running for re-election while still being paid by taxpayers to represent them in Parliament — for 11 weeks, no less. Many of their unelected opponents are using vacation time or unpaid leave from their current jobs to pursue the same objective.

Beyond that, whenever there’s a leadership race or an election at different level of government, there’s usually a list of politicians who give up their day jobs in everything but name and salary and devote their full-time attention to seeking a new gig.

Look at the recent race to be the leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives. Five candidates were in the race initially, all of them elected officials. Following the standard practice in politics, not one of them resigned to pursue their leadership aspirations. The race lasted almost 11 months, during which the candidates travelled the province, debated each other and made policy announcements, all while collecting salaries from taxpayers.

The eventual winner, Patrick Brown, continued as the federal MP for Barrie throughout the campaign, stepping down only after the final vote was announced. If he’d lost, he would have suffered no interruption in his employment. It would have been a fun little adventure on taxpayers’ time.

Brown offered the standard argument: that he continued to fulfil all of his federal duties while running for the provincial leadership. But given how often politicians refer to their demanding work schedules, it’s difficult to accept that Barrie constituents got the same value from Brown as if he had stayed out of the race.

According to recent media reports, the runner-up, Christine Elliott, never returned to the Ontario legislature after her leadership ambitions were quashed, until she resigned in August. Such behaviour is not unusual — both Tim Hudak and Dalton McGuinty apparently made themselves fairly scarce around Queen’s Park after they stepped down from leadership roles. But in what other job would such absenteeism be tolerated just because you didn’t get the job you wanted?

There are some cases when politicians choose or are forced to step down from one elected position before seeking another. But for the most part, pursuing re-election or higher office while getting paid by taxpayers is simply another example of how elected representatives operate inside a bubble. In this exclusive club, it’s easier to move around from within than gain admission from the outside.

This dynamic isn’t unique to Canada: In the race for U.S. president, it’s standard practice for governors and senators to become candidates, getting donors to foot their extensive cross-country tours while taxpayers continue to pay their salaries. Voters generally shrug at this behaviour: Failed presidential candidates like John Kerry and John McCain were easily re-elected to the Senate after taking off the better part of two years — with pay — to seek the White House.

A certain level of on-the-job campaigning is inevitable in politics. And you can’t avoid the advantage incumbents have of getting paid while they run for re-election. But it wouldn’t hurt for some politicians to show a little more respect to their current employers while they’re seeking higher office. They’ll tell you that they’re simply trying to expand their commitment to public service, but many don’t seem even remotely self-conscious about putting ambition ahead of duty.