Poll: Saskatchewan residents reject outdated, ineffective campaign finance laws

Saskatchewan citizens overwhelmingly do not want donations from out of province actors, charities or publicly funded institutions in their political system.

November 04, 2016

A new poll shows the residents of Saskatchewan do not want out of province money or donations from charities or publicly funded institutions in their politics. 

The poll, which was commissioned by Progress Alberta and done by Mainstreet Research shows an overwhelming rejection of the status quo of campaign finance law in Saskatchewan. The vast majority of the residents of Saskatchewan do not want out of province money in their political system nor do they want donations from publicly funded institutions or registered charities in their political system either.

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The poll comes on the heels of a recently published online database compiled by Progress Alberta that detailed the last nine years of corporate donations to Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party. The database can be viewed at BradWallTookMoneyFromWho.ca. 

Accepting donations from charities, out of province actors and publicly funded institutions is unscrupulous, unprincipled and undemocratic. Wall has bizarrely tried to downplay the effect of out of province money on Saskatchewan politics and hand wave away the real demand for change on this issue. "You know, we just came through an election campaign, and I can honestly say I didn't have one voter raise it, so probably not. No plans right now for any changes," said Wall.

The results of this poll disagree with Wall's flip characterization of the issue. Saskatchewan needs campaign finance reform now. 

Check out the full poll report and results here. 

POLL RESULTS

Should government funded organizations like cities, libraries, universities be allowed to donate money to Saskatchewan political parties?
No – 81 per cent
Yes – 7 per cent
Not sure – 12 per cent
Should out of province money be allowed to fund political parties in Saskatchewan?
No – 69 per cent
Yes – 11 per cent
Not sure – 20 per cent
Should registered charities be allowed to donate money to Saskatchewan political parties?
No – 74 per cent
Yes – 9 per cent
Not sure – 17 per cent
Voter Intention in Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Party – 45 per cent
NDP – 31 per cent
Liberal – 4 per cent
Green – 4 per cent
Undecided – 16 per cent
METHODOLOGY
Mainstreet surveyed a random sample of 1,673 Saskatchewan Residents by Chimera IVR™ on November 1st-2nd, 2016. A mixture of landlines and cell phones were surveyed. Margin of error: +/- 2.4%, 19 times out of 20.