Alberta’s experiment in democratic renewal a failure
Graham Thomson, Edmonton Journal
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
That was back in June of 2015 when Premier Rachel Notley and Wildrose leader Brian Jean were on a postelection high, having both defeated the Progressive Conservatives.
The two of them jointly called for the creation of a special all-party legislative committee to review, among other things, political contributions and elections spending.
Thus was born the Select Special Ethics and Accountability Committee.
A total of 17 members were appointed: eight from the NDP government and eight from the opposition (four Wildrose, two PCs, one Liberal and one Canada Party representative). And one chairperson: also from the NDP.
This was refreshingly unusual. Normally, all-party committees are stacked with government members but here we had a 50-50 split with a chair who would only cast a vote in the event of a tie.
It was something of an experiment. The NDP and Wildrose wanted to show Canadans they could work together when need be, especially on a topic they both held dear: overhauling election finance laws that for years benefitted the PCs.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be the kind of experiment Dr. Frankenstein would cook up if he’d been a politician.
What we have is a committee that is breathtakingly dysfunctional.
The government members are accusing the opposition members of chronically and deliberately derailing the committee’s work.
The opposition members complain the government members are rushing forward a massive overhaul of the province’s election laws that largely benefit the NDP.
The chair, Jessica Littlewood, has been put in the awkward position all summer long of breaking tie votes by siding every time in favour of the government. That’s not surprising, given she’s an NDP MLA, but it has gradually undermined her status as an impartial referee.
The dysfunction hit a new high, or low, this week when the opposition demanded Littlewood step down over accusations she had approached the opposition last week to broker backroom deals.
She denied the accusation but recused herself for a day as sop to the opposition.
No matter who you support in this bun fight, you have to admit the NDP members are running through an ambitious agenda.
They have passed motions to radically limit political contributions and election spending.
Under existing laws, you can contribute up to $15,000 each year to as many parties and candidates as you’d like – and up to $30,000 in an election year.
Under the NDP’s motion, that would be limited to a total of $4,000. That’s a $4,000 total for all the contributions you could give in a year whether it’s money to candidates or parties or even a leadership race.
To counterbalance the inevitable drop in finances to parties and candidates, the NDP members have also passed a motion to have the provincial treasury rebate half of all election spending to parties and candidates that win at least 10 per cent of the vote.
The Wildrose, Liberals and Canada Party are all in favour of putting a lid on election financing but say the NDP is pushing too far too fast. The Wildrose, that has been successful raising money the past year, is complaining the New Democrats, not as successful at raising money, are trying to construct a playing field that will benefit the NDP in the next election.
The NDP argues the rules are the same for all parties. However, the 10 per cent threshold for a campaign rebate is unfair to smaller parties such as the Canada Party – and, these days, the Liberals – who struggle to get 10 per cent of the vote.
It is hard to overstate just how angry both sides are with each other.
The committee’s mandate runs out in a few weeks but is supposed to be reconstituted to continue with its work.
The work to overhaul the election finance laws will be passed over to the assembly for debate.
It would seem the experiment in democratic renewal has faltered if not outright failed.
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