The election spending limits in Saskatoon have gotten way out of hand. The City of Regina recently increased their mayoral campaign spending limit to just under $74,000. In contrast, Saskatoon increased theirs to just under $278,000 – a substantial difference not accounted for by our slight population increase over Regina. Winnipeg has 2.5 times our population, but its mayor campaign spending limit is still below ours! This is a real problem for democracy. It comes down to the people with the most money monopolizing all of the advertising and the election narrative, while people with good ideas are shut out.
We need to reduce our spending limits for the Mayor and Councillor to a proportionate amount equal to Regina. If Saskatoon’s population is 300,000 and Regina’s is 245,000, then our limit should be decreased until we hit that proportionate amount. So maybe ours is $90,000 for a Mayor while Regina’s is $74,000, for example. This would allow more people with good ideas to come forward. It will also ensure that good ideas are the main effort of a campaign and not just big advertising. Excessive vague advertising is not always a good way to get real platform information.
Candidates become lazy because they use money to fill in for content they don’t have or don’t wish to generate. We need somewhere in between. We need enough advertising to give someone a reasonable voice and an incentive to actually be innovative and work hard to get that vote and that voice. One of my first tasks as Mayor will be to work with my Councillors to get our limits in line with Regina right off the bat because if Regina can do it, Saskatoon can, too.
The other component of election spending limits is contribution limits themselves. Right now, excessive contributions may be garnered from only a select few sources, which gives someone with their purchasing power an unfair advantage. I want to level that playing field a bit more. I propose that we cap private or corporate donations to a maximum of $500 so that Councillors and Mayor candidates have to fund their campaigns from a broader prospect of taxpayers or put more of their own money into their own campaigns. Too often, I see where the candidate has not even contributed to their campaign. I look at it as if they don’t believe in themselves, they shouldn’t be taking money from other people for the same action. I want to stop affluence equals influence.