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

Pedersen Reprimands Wall Government For Watered Down Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets

"The Saskatchewan Party’s brand new legislation, The Management and Reduction of Greenhouse Gases Act (introduced Tuesday) pays only lip service to addressing climate change. The legislation is a baby-step in the right direction but doesn’t even come close to righting the wrong of watering down their greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets or stripping the $320 million Green Futures Fund left by the NDP.

The government has broken its promise to keep the same targets as the last government and instead adopted the weaker federal targets. We should be shooting for a 40% reduction by 2020 which is double what the government has identified."
Yens Pedersen
'Too Little Too Late'

Meili Campaign Launches YouTube Channel

"NDP leadership candidate Ryan Meili wants to reach a new generation of political activists. To do so, he’s using the viral power of online social networks to change the way politics is practiced in Saskatchewan.

Today, the campaign officially released a series of digital videos on party renewal, agriculture and rural life, the environment, First Nations and Métis issues and health care. Meili hopes that his supporters will promote the videos across their online social networks and in the blogosphere.

“When M.J. Coldwell and Tommy Douglas were building our party, they depended on people sharing the CCF story and vision with their friends and neighbours,” said Meili. “We’re just doing the same thing in a 21st century way. Online communities created through social networking allow people with common political values to organize and to inspire each other.”

Ryan Meili YouTube

'Restoring the Mandate of SaskEnergy' - Lingenfelter Policy Statement

After the brutal gouging that Saskatchewan natural gas consumers endured from our incompetent Saskatchewan Party administration this past winter, the following policy statement is timely:

"A province with abundant reserves of natural gas should be able to use that natural bounty as a strategic advantage in economic development and to shield its people from frequent spikes in the world market price. We can’t do that in Saskatchewan today, because we no longer own any natural gas reserves. Considering that its hands were tied by the Devine government’s privatization agenda, SaskEnergy has done a remarkable job trying to protect the people of Saskatchewan from the volatility of natural gas prices. During the nineteen nineties, the corporation developed a hedging and storage program to cushion Saskatchewan people from the effects of wild fluctuations in the price of natural gas. This allowed the public utility to purchase natural gas supplies at lower prices (usually during the spring and summer months), store large amounts of natural gas underground for use during the winter season, and avoid the worst price spikes of the open market.

This system worked until the Wall government began to interfere with it in 2008. Political interference resulted in SaskEnergy locking in high prices for its natural gas supplies in the summer of 2008. The result was a 20% increase in the cost of natural gas for Saskatchewan people at a time when the market price was plunging by 40%. The effects of this political blunder were magnified by a very cold winter. Now it is time to consider restoring the full mandate of SaskEnergy; to allow this efficient public utility not only to buy natural gas on the open market, but to explore for and develop its own natural gas reserves on behalf of its customers, the people of Saskatchewan."
Restoring the Mandate of SaskEnergy

Lingenfelter Promises Full Cooperation With Party Probe

REGINA -- "Dwain Lingenfelter promised full co-operation with an NDP investigation into 1,100 improperly obtained party memberships even as its terms of reference released Thursday contained new revelations — including that his campaign had purchased the $10 memberships mostly with small bills.

The former deputy premier apologized Monday for a lack of oversight in the campaign and for what he said was the work of an overzealous volunteer in signing up individuals en masse on the Flying Dust and Waterhen Lake First Nations without their consent or knowledge."
Regina Leader-Post

Lingenfelter Releases Immigration and Multiculturalism Strategy

"Immigration is crucial to Saskatchewan’s future economic growth, social development, and prosperity. It is clear that the combination of Saskatchewan’s aging population, the growth of our economy, and a labour shortage across a number of important occupations will necessitate an increase in international immigration over the next several years. Along with our Aboriginal population, these new immigrants will form the foundation of Saskatchewan’s labour force and economy in the 21st century."
Dwain Lingenfelter

Party Outlines Hale's Terms of Reference

Hale's Terms of Reference

Ryan Meili On First Nations And Metis

The Meili campaign has released a video concerning his policies on First Nations and Metis in Saskatchewan.

Membership Controversy Livens Up Campaign!

Nothing like a good old fashioned political controversy to liven up a fairly lack lustre leadership campaign! In fact the strutting and sputter that is coming from the Saskatchewan Party is almost laughable considering a couple of looming 'controversies' that are percolating around them at the moment .. (more on that later).

Kudos to NDP Provincial Secretary, Deb McDonald for her handling of the membership questions to date.

Officials of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party have decided to toss out all 1100 memberships that were brought forward by the Lingenfelter campaign and which came under question as the deadline for memberships ended.

Some of the candidates are now commenting on the matter;
-Dwain Lingenfelter's news conference ...
-Ryan Meili's thoughts ...

Membership Hits 14,169 - Some Questions Out Of The North

Next month, 14,169 members will be entitled to cast a vote for the next leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party.

CBC Saskatchewan is reporting that there have been a few complaints out of northern Saskatchewan concerning membership eligibility. Provincial Secretary, Deb McDonald has indicated that she will investigate.

CBC Saskatchewan