Calgary Herald

Kenney, Notley spar over new UCP referendum bill

- DEAN BENNETT

EDMONTON Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is pushing back on Opposition NDP claims that his new referendum bill is a backdoor attempt to unfairly influence debate during elections and bring big money back into politics.

“I just find it completely bizarre that anyone would characteri­ze this ( bill) as being undemocrat­ic or, as the Opposition has said, a power grab, when in fact this is the exact opposite,” Kenney said Wednesday. “This is not aggregatin­g power to the government, but giving power to the people. There is nothing more democratic than this.”

Kenney made the comments a day after his government introduced the referendum bill along with legislatio­n to amend senator-in-waiting elections.

He has already promised referendum­s to get a mandate to fight with Ottawa over equalizati­on payments and possibly to abandon the Canada Pension Plan.

The bill would give cabinet the power to determine which issues could go to vote, how the question would be worded, when the votes would be held and whether the results would be binding.

The bill also proposes to allow third-party advertiser­s to spend up to $500,000 to influence public opinion on the issue at hand. Those advertiser­s would only have to file audited financial statements if they spend more than $350,000.

Currently, third-party advertiser­s can spend only $150,000 during a provincial election campaign.

Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the $500,000 ceiling along with reporting exemptions below $350,000 means deep pockets can be used to sway voter opinion, something her government took out while it was in power by lowering contributi­on limits.

Notley said the bill clears the way for abuse.

“He will be able to take an issue right out of the UCP campaign strategy book and invite literally hundreds of third-party organizati­ons to spend half-a-million dollars each on those issues, potentiall­y during the (provincial) election campaign,” she said.

“If they’re super-sneaky, they can get away without filing auditable (financial) reports if they only spend $349,000 each.

“This is classic American-style campaignin­g, corrupting our system.”

Kenney disagreed, saying Alberta’s referendum bill is similar to rules in B.C., Saskatchew­an, and other jurisdicti­ons.

He challenged Notley’s assertion that $500,000 is excessive, noting modern campaigns are expensive.

“While it is legitimate to have a spending limit, it has to be a reasonable limit,” he said.

“You could not have a real democratic debate on an important issue through a referendum campaign if the limit were five, 10, 50 thousand dollars. Groups could not effectivel­y communicat­e with millions of Albertans.”

David Taras, a professor and political commentato­r from Mount Royal University’s school of communicat­ion studies, said third-party advertisin­g can make it difficult to know who the advertiser­s are or who they are associated with.

“So the question is whether the game will be tilted, the board will be tilted, because all of these third-party advertiser­s can tilt the board with lots of money,” he said.

Kenney also accused the NDP of hypocrisy, wanting big money out of politics but being OK with millions of dollars being spent on third party-advertisin­g by its union supporters.

“That’s just a loophole, where in this case one party is using an affiliate to do its advertisin­g for them,” said Kenney.

Kenney said his government will introduce legislatio­n this fall banning formal affiliates of registered political parties from operating as third-party advertiser­s.

The Canadian Press, with files from Ashley Joannou, Postmedia News

 ?? CHRIS SCHWARZ/GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA ?? Premier Jason Kenney rejects NDP suggestion­s that his new referendum bill is undemocrat­ic.
CHRIS SCHWARZ/GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA Premier Jason Kenney rejects NDP suggestion­s that his new referendum bill is undemocrat­ic.

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