The Saskatchewan Party has released its full slate of 61 candidates for the 2024 provincial election. Within that announcement, in a social media post Friday, was a list of five candidates that have past convictions for impaired driving.
The Saskatchewan Party is the first political party to release information about past criminal convictions ahead of the election, planned for Oct. 28.
“We do that to ensure Saskatchewan people are aware. It is strictly disclosure and transparency,” Premier Scott Moe said Wednesday.
The post listed five candidates (Sean Wilson, Chris Beaudry, James Thorsteinson, Terry Jenson and Moe) that had convictions from 1992 to 2011.
In an email, Saskatchewan Party executive director Patrick Bundrock said Jenson was also convicted of dangerous driving alongside his impaired driving charge and Beaudry of driving with a suspended licence related to his impaired driving charge.
Bundrock said none of the other candidates have criminal convictions.
Most parties planning to follow suit
On Tuesday, Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck said her party would also disclose which candidates have criminal convictions.
So far, according to the provincial NDP, only one candidate has a conviction: Bhajan Brar in the Regina Pasqua riding was charged with dangerous driving causing bodily harm in 2011, which was also disclosed in 2020.
“We want people to have confidence in those who are elected. That disclosure is important prior to the election, but also conduct while members are elected is also very, very important,” Beck said on Tuesday.
In an email, NDP spokesperson Brock Bowman said the party will be releasing a full list of disclosures once it has finished nominating its 61 candidates.
In 2019, Prince Edward Island overtook Saskatchewan as the province with the highest police-reported rate of impaired driving. It was the first time in more than two decades that Saskatchewan did not post the highest rate of impaired driving offences among provinces, according to Statistics Canada.
StatCan data from 2023 shows there were about 414 incidents per 100,000 people in Saskatchewan (second to a rate of 515 per 100,000 people in P.E.I.).
CBC/Radio-Canada contacted all registered political parties in Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan Progress Party, formerly known as the Saskatchewan Liberal Party, said it has no plans for disclosure as “any convictions are public record.”
“While the disclosures will inform constituents about who they are choosing to represent them, the Saskatchewan Progress Party is focused on policy and responsible governing,” the party’s chief official agent, Michael Medby, said in an email.
The Saskatchewan Green Party said it will disclose past convictions if aware of them, and the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan said it will disclose.
CBC/Radio-Canada did not receive a response from the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan or the Saskatchewan United Party.
The next provincial election is slated to take place on or before Oct. 28.
How important are the disclosures?
Jim Farney, a political science professor at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, said parties try to beat their opponents to bad news in this pre-election phase.
“I think voters always treat the absence of disclosure much more seriously than anything else. So, it’s kind of the coverup that gets you, not the offence,” Farney said.
The Saskatchewan Party’s disclosure focused on impaired driving, an offence that Farney said sits in a societal grey area — not as serious as something like armed robbery that would likely keep them out of most parties, not as innocuous as a run-of-the-mill traffic ticket.
Impaired driving is also more common in Saskatchewan than elsewhere, Farney noted.
There have been changes to what people expect of a public official, Farney said. He believes that an impaired driving charge is more likely to change someone’s vote than in the past, while something like a divorce may have been an issue in the past, but wouldn’t matter much now.
He said he doesn’t expect these disclosures to affect the election.
“If that’s the worst thing they’ve done and they haven’t injured anybody or they’re not hiding any injury-type thing, then it wouldn’t bother me as much if they were really hiding something terrible,” said voter Tammy Ceaser.
She said that it would contribute to her voting decisions — alongside a candidate’s platform and character — and that she believes candidates should disclose their impaired driving convictions.
“You can find anything on the internet, so you may as well just tell us.”
Similarly, Wendy Swann said she would take it into account, as well as how long ago the offence was and if they have changed their conduct, but it may not sway her vote.
“I don’t think you can discount somebody because of one mistake, but it’s something to consider,” she said.
“I support a particular political perspective and so I may be more forgiving of people who are on my side of the political spectrum than people on the other side of the political spectrum — which is not fair, I realize, but it’s also human.”