What they seek is power. Fortunately, the best are dedicated to the cause and sincerely want to make a difference. Unfortunately, the worst need money and crave the attention and adrenalin highs they get from political campaigning. Obviously, then, pay raises won't promote better candidates. Unlike politicians, private sector executives get fired immediately if they fail to perform as expected.
Voters can only reward or punish their politicians every four or five years.
Some unproductive politicians even manage to hang onto long-term careers on Parliament Hill. Apparently that's important to him. To us it is totally unrelated and entirely the wrong reason for a raise. Of course Canadians should pay politicians enough to make politics a reasonable career choice. The government should do likewise.