How I am providing transparency to a government shrouded in secrecy
Last night, Saskatchewan made the disappointing choice to reward failure and allow the Sask Party to escape accountability, much like Scott Moe after he killed someone in his truck and got away with it. In the leader's debate, Scott Moe promised no cuts to public services, no selling off of Crowns, and no tax increases. It is our job to ensure our government does as we expect them to, but frankly, I don't trust them to do so. They have given us far too many reasons to not believe a word they say.
It is my belief that the Sask Party answer only to their rich friends, and disregards everyone else. After all, they associate carbon pricing with the enemy (i.e. L(l)iberals, the NDP, environmentalists, etc.), effectively labelling anyone who is concerned about climate change the enemy (unless of course you are for both action on climate change and against a price on carbon, which in this case, you should probably seek medical attention because you are likely having a stroke).
With the loosest campaign financing laws in the country, the door is open for parties and candidates in Saskatchewan to be undemocratically influenced by non-voters. While the Sask NDP want to ban donations from corporations and unions, the Sask Party will gladly accept any and all amounts of money from anyone who wants to influence our government. This is why I have decided to make a tool to help us identify where this influence is coming from, in an effort to understand who really has power over this province.
Today, I would like to announce the launching of SaskPartyDonors.ca, where you can sift through publicly-available political contribution data in a meaningful way. I welcome you to take a look at this work-in-progress and ask that you please send me all of your comments on how this tool could better provide a little transparency to a government that is shrouded in secrecy. Saskatchewan voters deserve better than being bamboozled into voting against their own best interests and my hope is for this tool to help wake some of those voters up.