Postal workers don’t know how good they have it.
Sure, they’ve been ordered back to work by a Conservative government that’s intent to pay them even less than their employer offered at the bargaining table.
But at least they’re not freezing to death in a harsh Klondike winter.
That seems to be the message offered by Yukon MP Ryan Leef during last weekend’s parliamentary debates over the back-to-work bill.
In the early hours of June 24, Leef reminded his fellow MPs of the plight of the ill-fated Lost Patrol.
In 1910, four Mounties, led by Inspector Francis Joseph Fitzgerald, sought to deliver a bundle a mail from Dawson City to Fort McPherson.
They all died. But, curiously, Leef never mentioned that part.
“They were not battling pensions,” said Leef. “They were not worrying about wages. They were doing this because they understood how important commerce and communication was to the North and to the people of Canada.”
Addressing the Opposition, Leef asked, “Where have we lost that idea that this service to the North is so important? What is so wrong with a Conservative government trying to protect that and re-instill that for Canadian people?”