High Sask. Party leadership costs may cause influence problems

Running for Saskatchewan Party leader is a business — one with a spending limit of $250,000 per candidate and requiring a $25,000 deposit that’s equivalent to a rather expensive franchise fee.

There are two candidates (Tina Beaudry-Mellor and Jeremy Harrison) already in the race and a possibility of another five (Ken Cheveldayoff, Gord Wyant, Jim Reiter, Kevin Doherty and Alanna Koch) and even a longshot chance of an eighth hopeful (MP Brad Trost, although he’d most likely have to resign his federal seat to run).

Realistically, expect only four or five Sask. Party leadership candidates — largely because of high startup costs for this enterprise.

High entry costs should have the desired effect of weeding out less serious candidates, but they may also have the unintended problem of attracting individuals willing to gamble cash on influencing the political process.

Obviously, the Sask. Party is not the only party susceptible to outside money influence.

New Democrats may be sanctimonious on this matter, but their past candidates eagerly rewarded individual donors with government jobs. And then there is the matter of large-scale political donations made by unions to individual NDP candidates and to the party as whole — money that’s come from individual dues-paying members who have had no say in the matter.

However, political donations have long been a sensitive matter for the Sask. Party — both for historical reasons and ones currently in play in this leadership.

Historically speaking, from the days of former leader Elwin Hermanson right through to Brad Wall’s management, this party has been more than willing to solicit out-of-province donations or take unlimited sums from large donors. (That Wall took a party salary that came from this donation money was a serious perception problem.)

Trips to Calgary so that the Sask. Party could hit up Alberta oil executives for donations became the norm. So did largescale donations from the likes of then media mogul Conrad Black prior to the Sask. Party’s first campaign in 1999. Whether these contributions influenced Sask. Party government policy any more than past donations influenced NDP governments is a matter of debate, but Saskatchewan’s incredibly loose political donation laws that allow unlimited contributions from both businesses and unions are certainly going to cause suspicion.

Such suspicions are only heightened when the political donation (one in which donors can’t even get a tax writeoff ) goes toward an internal party leadership contest.

To the Sask. Party’s credit, party officials explain they “tried to mirror the provisions of the Saskatchewan Election Act as closely as possible” meaning that all individual donations more than $250 will have to publicly disclosed. In fact, transparency requirements for leadership candidates will produce two preliminary election returns with donor information as the race is going on plus one final leadership election return.

As for the $25,000 entry fee, $15,000 is refundable but only if the candidate meets all disclosure requirements and complies with all the other rules of the race, completes the race, gets at least 10 per cent on the final ballot and adheres to the Licensing Agreement for Use of the Saskatchewan Party Membership List.

Essentially, what this means is candidates have to pay $10,000 for the party’s membership list, although it may cost them $25,000 if they don’t adhere to the rather stringent rules or do rather well.

This contrasts with the NDP leadership with its $4,000 entry fee that’s less prohibitive to a candidate who doesn’t have a serious shot at winning but wants to spark debate in the membership. Let us note the Sask. Party will have more candidates than the NDP.

Moreover, Sask. Party leadership hopefuls are running to become premier. One would hope the selection process would be attracting only serious, qualified candidates.

That said, with no limit on the donation amount and a hefty maximum $250,000 cost, candidates can quickly be perceived as beholden to those that funded them.

It’s a serious issue both the Sask. Party and outsiders would be well advised to monitor closely.