“It’s been suggested in the legislature that neither corporations nor unions should be allowed to financially prop up the candidate of their choice,” said CUPE Saskatchewan president Tom Graham. “The members of our union whole-heartedly agree, and are calling on the Government of Saskatchewan to modernize the province’s donation policy, and ensure that no elected officials owe anybody any favours.”All this may be moot since most public sector unions have moved away from direct campaign donations to third-party issue advertising during political campaigns, something that probably drove the BC Liberal Party crazy during the last provincial campaign.
Union donations to local election campaigns
Over on northvancouverpolitics.com, many are working themselves into a lather about how the local branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees donated funds to a number of local candidates.Until the campaign disclosure statements come up I don't know how much of an issue this is, although I will say that the on the whole the campaign material produced by the list of CUPE-supported candidates was far more numerous and glossy than those provided by other candidates.However, when googling I came across this statement from CUPE's Saskatchewan branch, which reveals that some in the organization would prefer that it not donate at all to political campaigns.
