November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Inside Stephen Harper's wallet

During his 10 years on Parliament Hill, Pierre Pettigrew drew admiring stares for his elegant suits and swooping salt-and-pepper coiffure. But the Liberal politician didn’t just look like a million bucks. He also earned a million bucks. Actually, he did even better than that. As a cabinet minister between 1996 and 2006, he collected paycheques totalling more than $1.5 million.

Even after he lost his seat in the 2006 election, the money kept flowing in. Like all fired MPs, Pettigrew qualified for a severance package, estimated to be worth $49,000 by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. And that was just the down payment on a plush future. Three months after leaving Parliament, he celebrated his 55th birthday and could start collecting a parliamentary pension worth $76,000 a year. While it’s difficult to put an exact dollar figure on Pettigrew’s pension, it’s roughly equivalent to what a person of similar age could buy in the form of an annuity for $1.6-million.

Pettigrew’s total take from a decade in public service? Between salary, pension and benefits, the equivalent of at least $3 million.