Quote:
Originally Posted by chedder
I know this board seems to skew pretty high income but it's funny when people always say politics is a pay cut. A Calgary councillor makes base pay of $120,000 plus pension plan, good benefits, a transition allowance when they quit or get defeated. Plus a really good annual car allowance, expense account and generous budget for their constituency offices. I don't imagine they pay for too many fancy lunches themselves either.
So, while not huge money, a lot of people would think it's a pretty decent living.
I also don't think their hours of work would be any more than most.
|
The time commitment needed to be an councilperson cannot be understated. It is significantly more than an average job.
Decent municipal councilpersons attend a ton of unpaid weekday evening and weekend community events, and provide representation on at least a half-dozen municipal sub-committees and local associations/boards/commissions in addition to their regular role as councilperson.
Being an councilperson is easy for someone like Sean Chu or Dan McLean who do the bare minimum with no additional sub-committees or community work.
Conversely, councilpersons like Mian, Wong, Demong, and Pootmans are grinding it out all day almost every day.
In addition to all the other crap that councilpersons have to deal with, imagine giving up most of your evenings and a lot of weekends for a piddly $120k/year. It's definitely not worth it unless you're there to grift or you really love the city of Calgary.