We need to keep a leery eye on political action committees

Autumn Sundays at my house are often spent muttering obscenities and shaking my fist at the television.

I take part in a couple of fantasy football leagues with other journalists, which means I get far too invested in the fortunes of mediocre tight ends who otherwise offer nothing to my daily well-being.

Amid my episodes of rage last Sunday, I was surprised to see an image of Premier Rachel Notley appear on the screen during a break in the game.

“The NDP are punishing Alberta’s families to pay for their out-of-control spending,” the commercial told me.

The ad, professionally produced, seemed like it could have easily come from the studios of the United Conservative Party. In fact, it was the work of a new

political action committee (PAC) called Shaping Alberta’s Future.

Besides its foray into television, the group also has a handful of radio ads in circulation along with roadside billboards in Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge.

While PACs are not exactly a new phenomenon in Canada, their numbers are certainly on the rise. And Albertans should expect to see more of their activism over the next year with provincial and federal elections on the horizon.

In the case of Shaping Alberta’s Future, executive director David Wasyluk described the group as a collection of individuals and businesses who are upset with the NDP’s economic policies and want to help the UCP get elected to power.

What’s less obvious is that the group is also a well-funded collection of individuals and businesses.

The group’s disclosure with Elections Alberta shows the PAC raised $375,000 in the third quarter alone, the bulk of it from car dealerships around Alberta. This is not by accident.

The tale is told in a letter by the Motor Dealers’ Association of Alberta — led by former Tory MLA Denis Ducharme — which outlined a meeting between the association board and UCP Leader Jason Kenney on Sept. 6.

According to the letter, Kenney promised a number of actions to the board should his party be elected: repealing labour legislation, asking for dealer input to “rebalance the playing field” between consumers and industry, and banning imported righthand-drive Asian vehicles.

A spokeswoman for the UCP caucus said the party disagrees with some of the letter’s characterizations, and that Kenney has made no specific legislative promises.

Ducharme confirmed that, despite the strong language used in the letter.

However, Ducharme also confirmed that Kenney was clear to dealers about the limitations his party faces due to new political fundraising rules.

Those rules prevent corporate and union donations to political parties, and limit individual donations to $4,000 per year.

In contrast, PACs face no such restrictions on who can donate or how much. They also can spend as much as they like up until Dec. 1, after which they are limited to $150,000 until the writ drops.

Whatever Kenney told the dealers, it helped to get the money flowing to the Shaping Alberta’s Future group that now has ads on provincial airwaves.

To be clear, I have no particular issue with Alberta groups raising money to sell a political message, as long as those groups are not working directly with parties.

Provincial laws are designed to prevent this, otherwise parties could simply use PACs to circumvent their own fundraising limits.

In the case of Shaping Alberta’s Future, I’m told the NDP party is considering launching a complaint on exactly that allegation.

Their concern is that the messaging from Shaping Alberta’s Future — and the letter from the dealers’ association — suggests there has been at least some teamwork between the UCP and the PAC.

Wasyluk denies this. The UCP spokeswoman said the party and the PAC simply have similar interests, but did not specifically answer if there has been any collaboration.

For me, the evidence isn’t clear enough to say one way or another at this point.

Generally, however, I think the rise of PACs is a troubling trend, in part because such groups are not always accountable for messaging that is, shall we say, less than entirely truthful.

We fortunately haven’t reached the level of U.S.-style advertising that shows no restraint at selling outright lies, often accompanied with blood red lettering and predictions about the apocalypse.

But there are signs we are starting to inch down that path.

The Shaping Alberta’s Future ad, for example, highlights the amount of money families have to pay in carbon tax, but neglects to mention most of those families are receiving a rebate.

Another of their ads features a video of Education Minister David Eggen protesting against new oilsands approvals, but doesn’t mention that the video is years old and that he has changed his position.

Some left-of-centre PACs are no better. There’s no easy solution to stopping this without infringing on freedom of speech rights, but this is not a trend we can ignore. Should it continue unabated, that’s really something worth shaking a fist at.