Conservative MP refusing pay bump was heckled, admonished by his colleagues

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The Conservative MP who went public with his intent to refuse a pending parliamentary pay increase was called out by the party whip in front of his colleagues and heckled as he tried to defend his decision, CBC News has learned.

In a letter to the House of Commons clerk that was made public Tuesday, New Brunswick Conservative MP Mike Dawson said he wanted his pay frozen because he couldn't in good conscience accept an increase while many working people are struggling to get by.

"It's frankly distasteful that parliamentarians are set to receive a raise while the working man (and woman) in this country hasn't seen a decent raise in decades," Dawson wrote.

That letter has not gone over well with some of his fellow Conservative MPs, who are now facing uncomfortable questions from their own constituents about why they are willing to accept a roughly $10,000 salary increase set to take effect in April.

Backbench MPs are currently paid $209,800 with committee chairs, ministers, the prime minister, the Speaker and his deputies, among other officeholders, entitled to additional remuneration.

The party's whip, MP Chris Warkentin, called Dawson out from the front of the room during a caucus meeting on Wednesday, multiple caucus sources told CBC News.

Warkentin told Dawson that the scheduled pay bump is set out in law and he's legally required to take it, sources said.

The Parliament of Canada Act sets MP salaries or "sessional allowances," as they're called in the legislation, and includes a provision that increases them every year using a complex formula based on pay increases in the private sector.

It's not clear how Dawson could refuse this statutory increase; he could, like other MPs have done in the past, simply donate a portion of his higher salary to charity.

Dawson was standing at the microphone used by MPs to speak to the leader, whip and other caucus leaders while he was being dressed down by Warkentin, one caucus source said.

When it was his chance to speak, some MPs, between six or eight of them, started to heckle him and he abruptly left the meeting, sources said.

Reached by phone Thursday morning, Dawson confirmed there was a dust up.

Warkentin "didn't like that I did it" and "called me out in front of the caucus," Dawson told CBC News.

The MP said the party whip told him "I should've done it a different way, I guess. But I disagree," Dawson said.

"It's my money. If the rest of caucus didn't want to do it, I didn't ask the rest of caucus to do it.

"I didn't ask the rest of caucus to give the money back but maybe they should. It's pretty rich and hypocritical to get up on the floor of the House of Commons and talk about the cost of living and then criticize me for wanting to give my money back," Dawson said.

Dawson said there was "a lot of chirping going on" from other MPs when he tried to defend his actions at the microphone.

"I couldn't speak. When I was trying to speak, nobody could hear anything I was trying to say," Dawson said. He confirmed he left amid the heckling.

One caucus source said the heckling Dawson faced "wasn't that bad, considering the level of anger" there is among MPs right now toward him for going public with the pay issue.

"He's opened a whole can of worms," this source said.

Dawson said he spoke to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre later by phone and they had "a great conversation," and there were "no disagreements," but he wouldn't elaborate further.

Warkentin and a spokesperson for Poilievre did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Asked if what transpired bothered him, Dawson said he's not looking for respect from his parliamentary colleagues.

"I'm there to represent the people of Miramichi-Grand Lake. Those are the ones I care about if people respect me or not," he said.

And asked if the fracas is causing him to rethink his position in the Conservative caucus, Dawson said he's not considering crossing the floor to another party or sitting as an Independent.

"I'm a Conservative and I'm not a traitor," he said.

Dawson is also vowing to push ahead with his attempt to dodge the pay increase, despite some potential legal hurdles. "I'm not stopping. That's not in my DNA."