Saskatchewan New Democrats Choose Dwain Lingenfelter As Leader

Saskatchewan's Official Opposition New Democratic Party elected a new Leader today to replace the outgoing Lorne Calvert.

Here are the results of today's leadership election held in Regina:

First Ballot - (9444 Votes cast)
Dwain Lingenfelter: 4360
Ryan Meili: 2401
Yens Pedersen: 1380
Deb Higgins: 1303
(Higgins falls off and Pedersen withdraws)


Second Ballot - (9130 Votes cast)
Dwain Lingenfelter: 5028
Ryan Meili: 4102


CBC Saskatchewan has more ....

Generational Polarization - Not Ideological - Main Feature Of Sask NDP Leadership Race

There are four candidates actively seeking the leadership of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party. This Saturday, June 6th, the decision will be made in convention in Regina.

A key distinguishing feature of this race has been the breakdown of candidates, supporters and issues along generational lines as opposed to what usually would be along ideological lines.

During the last Saskatchewan leadership race in 2001, traditional Left/Right factions polarized around Lorne Calvert and Chris Axworthy. Calvert won and Axworthy eventually left the party to run federally for the Liberals. The departure of Axworthy ultimately proved that the Saskatchewan NDP made the correct decision by not selecting him as leader.

This time around, old ideological divisions seem to be taking a second seat to the desire for generational change that is being demanded by the ‘non-babyboomer’ demographic in the party. New Democrats of every ideological persuasion should be ecstatic about the vibrant and articulate youth element that is alive and well in the party. If anything should send shivers through the ranks of the currently governing Saskatchewan Party, it is the sheer size of the youth component active in the NDP.

Candidates Ryan Meili and Yens Pedersen have both clearly articulated their desire for generational change this time around. What they lack in long time experience and activity in the party is largely supplemented by their commitment to social democratic principles and policy. Both are to be commended for making this race a race of ideas.

Dwain Lingenfelter and Deb Higgins have both articulated a vision for the party based on their hard won experience and active service as Members of the Legislature. What they lack in youth is supplemented by the battle scars of active political combat that they have won in the trenches.

Regardless of who wins on Saturday, (be it a veteran New Democrat or a ‘new gen - New Dem’), the Saskatchewan NDP will rally around the new leader. No one has a monopoly on righteousness in the NDP. As a result, our Leader must submit to being a servant of the party. Anything short of that they do at their own peril within the mechanisms of the party. We are a party of ideas and we continue to offer the only real alternative to those on the Right who have damaged the world’s economy with their ongoing commitment to ‘unfettered free market’ nonsense.

Meanwhile .. back in the real world ... Nova Scotia NDP On The Verge Of Forming Government!!

Pity the Nova Scotia Liberals! No one wants to put up a lawn sign for their candidates. What to do? I know! Demand that ALL candidates take down their election signage and say that it's an 'environmental concern'! LOL!

Liberal candidate wants all election campaign signs down


Photo courtesy Tyler Kinch

Endorsements Starting To Roll In For Lingenfelter And Meili

I had decided not to feature publicly declared 'endorsements' for the candidates during this race. However, the lists of supporters for both Dwain Lingenfelter and Ryan Meili are starting to mount and are certainly worth noting:

-Dwain Lingenfelter Endorsements

-Ryan Meili Endorsements

Meili Wants To Limit Purchase Of Memberships For Others

Ryan Meili has offered a very good recommendation in his blog. The party should take note:

"Since the opportunity for such abuses persists, we need to make a constitutional amendment to the party rules that prevents this kind of outcome. One simple way would be to disallow buying anyone else a membership. If that is seen as too restrictive, perhaps one could be allowed to purchase a small number (<5) for friends and family, with the membership form changed to clearly denote the purchaser. At the very least, no candidate or campaign team should ever be able to buy memberships for anyone during a nomination or leadership election."
Ryan Meili

Yens Pedersen's Thoughts On Negative Campaigning

"One of the other leadership campaigns has been using negative attack language about me in the leadership race. One of their attacks goes something like: ‘Yens ran on a platform of renewal when he ran for president but by the time he stepped down as president, the party was in worse shape than ever.’ The problem with this attack is that it simply isn’t true."
Yens Pedersen

Hale Reports On Rejected Memberships In NDP Leadership Race

Robert Hale, a Saskatchewan lawyer was commissioned by the provincial New Democratic Party to conduct a review into the specifics of how 1100 potential memberships requests came about. The Provincial Office of the party has issued the following news release:

"Stricter oversight by both the Dwain Lingenfelter campaign and the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party might have prevented the invalid sale of NDP memberships in the Meadow Lake constituency from going as far as it did, Robert Hale said today.

But Hale, a Swift Current lawyer who investigated the membership affair on behalf of the party, said the safeguards in place for the process caught the irregularities in a number of areas, and voting process for the June 6 Party Leadership was not put at risk.

“The (Dwain) Lingenfelter campaign did not direct, authorize or condone this activity,” Hale said. “However, their policies did allow this to proceed further than it should have. If they had taken more time to speak with (the local DLC volunteer) and perhaps to members of the Band offices prior to spending $10,000, this could have been stopped sooner.”

However, sufficient concerns about the amount and quality of the membership applications were raised by the Lingenfelter campaign, the Provincial Office staff, the Meadow Lake constituency, the Chief of one of the Bands involved, and the other three Leadership candidates, that the problem was resolved early enough to prevent any negative consequences.

Hale concluded that (the local DLC volunteer) acted alone, without the authority or approval of the Lingenfelter campaign. However, he said that even if the intent had been to control the election with these improper ballots, it would not have worked.

“For those who might claim that this was an attempt at some type of voting fraud, it is important to note that the address was the Band office,” Hale said. “While we do have enough information to question the integrity of the individual who presented these applications, it would be entirely inappropriate to question the integrity of the officials at the Bands.

“Band officials would have arranged for members to receive their mail. The most likely outcome is that many ballots would have gone in the trash because people were not expecting them or they would have been returned to sender because the address was incorrect.”

He rejected out-of-hand (the local DLC volunteer) explanation to the Lingenfelter campaign of why he acted as he did because such actions are acceptable in Aboriginal communities. He said his consultation with past candidates, volunteers, canvassers, local executives and other volunteers clearly indicated this was not the case.

Hale accepted and supported the philosophy which allows Party members to pay for the membership of others, but said this case indicates the Party needs to put in place tighterregulations on this practice.

Saskatchewan NDP Provincial Secretary Deb McDonald said the Party now considers the matter closed.
“We are satisfied with the report and in due course will consider Mr. Hale’s recommendations about how this incident could be avoided in the future,” McDonald said. “At this time, however, the Party believes it is now time to move forward with letting the members decide who the next leader of the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan will be.”

In addition, the $11,000 that was paid for the rejected memberships has been confiscated by the New Democratic Party and will be used to defray the costs of the Hale inquiry. Should the $11,000 not cover the full cost of the review, the Lingenfelter campaign must pay for the difference.

When the Hale Report news conference concluded, Dwain Lingenfelter was scrumed by the local media. One question, in particular, caught my attention:

-Reporter: Do you feel vindicated by the review?
-Lingenfelter: I felt vindicated when I wrote to the Party asking them to review me and my campaign.

UPDATE:
I am monitoring the websites for all 4 candidates to see if there are any further statements on the Hale Report. I will post them as they appear:
-Statememt by Dwain Lingenfelter
-Statement by Ryan Meili