Tonight's vote at Port Coquitlam's City Hall will be closely watched by municipal politicians across the province.

This morning’s front page of the Vancouver Sun has a story about the proposed pay raises for Port Coquitlam’s Mayor and Council, which will be voted on tonight.

The issue of pay raises for politicians, particularly ones that they initiate and implement on their own is a prickly one, to be sure.  Generally, the public tends to think that no elected official is worth what he/she is paid, showing a general lack of knowledge of how much work they actually encounter and a innate disdain for the profession altogether.

And, of course, there is the fact that there are very few employment options available out there where one can vote on their own pay increase, which in turn only adds to the resentment a member of the public might feel about such a decision.

Without any hesitation, I often share my opinion that Councillors are grossly underpaid, and that the notion of these positions classifying as part-time work (particularly for larger municipalities like Vancouver), is completely out of touch with reality.

That being said, this article has some poorly thought out comments, both from the Minister and the Mayor, that in my opinion taints the perceptions of those reading the piece from the outset.

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