So, how is it...

...that politicians of all stripes can look us straight in the eye... and say that no one will be interested in the job unless they keep jackin' up the money?

A total of 65 ex-MPs from the last Parliament qualify for generous pension benefits or a $77,700 severance payment if they were not MPs for the six years required to qualify for a pension.

Former prime minister Paul Martin, a millionaire who spent little time in the Commons following his government's defeat in 2006, topped the list with an indexed lifetime pension of $167,051.

Liberal Joe McGuire, a former cabinet minister who was first elected in 1988, will receive an annual pension of $131,330. He announced his retirement months before the election, though he kept his P.E.I. Commons seat until the election, in which Conservative Gail Shea defeated the Liberal candidate who succeeded McGuire.

Another Liberal, former Welland MP John Maloney, will receive a pension of $79,331. Maloney first won election to the Commons only 15 years ago, and the highest position he held in successive Liberal governments was parliamentary secretary.

Retiring New Democrat MP Bill Blaikie will collect a $122,224 annual pension, while defeated Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer, 36, qualifies for minimum pension of $53,540, which he can begin collecting at age 55. By then, retroactive inflation indexing to the year he lost his seat will have increased Jaffer's pension substantially.

By comparison, a federal public servant who retires at age 60 after 35 years in pensionable service, and has earned an average salary of $50,000 for the five highest-paid years, will receive an annual pension of $35,000.

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