It would perhaps be wise to do more homework before you make comment on the "bloated" benefit packages of public servants. As a Federal Government public servant for the past 20 years, I still have 10 years to go before I am even eligible to collect my pension without penalty. Throughout my career, I have personally reaped the benefits of my many "bloated" Collective Agreements. Like the one where I received 0%, 0% and 0% salary increases over the life of the three year contract. Or the next one where I got 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.2% for the next three years. Really helpful when the cost of living probably went up by close to 8-10% over that same 6 year period. Or how about the last one where the government thought it would be a great idea to take away my severance pay. And let's not forget that every time I get a pay raise, my income tax goes up, my union dues go up, my CPP and Superannuation go up, so that wipes out that "raise" in a big hurry. Throughout my career, it's been my experience (reality) that my "bloated" pay raises usually amount to between $15 and $20 each cheque - if I'm lucky. And just for the record, even though I have over 1,200 hours accumulated in sick time - I get to give all that back to Mr. Harper free of charge when I retire. My reward for being such a conscientious employee and showing up for work every day. As for vacation days, us little worker bees in the public service are not allowed to accumulate our vacation days and haven't been allowed to since I've been a public servant. Now I hear that Mr. Harper is going to start slicing and dicing my pension. He can take that, along with my severance pay, to help fund his next whirl wind trip across Canada.

I would suggest that those who are going to bear the brunt of the proposed cuts, are those who are costing Canada the least. If you had done your research, you would have found that the average pension of today's public servant is around $24,000. Currently, after 20 years of service, my pension estimate is nowhere near that. Given the state of the economy, the proposed cuts to pensions and the constant rise in the cost of living, I am terrified for my future and standard of living. It is sad to think that I may have worked as a Public Servant for 30 years and may not be able to make ends meet when I retire - assuming there is any kind of pension left for me at all.

So please don't speak to the many perks of being a public servant when you've clearly never been one. There are perks for some, but not for all. It is unfortunate; however, that those who do received the "bloated" benefit packages are those who always seem to be protected from every wave of job cuts.