Questionable NDP Memberships Cancelled
Tuesday, May 05, 2009 at 15:37
Provincial NDP memberships bought on behalf of members of two Saskatchewan First Nations are being cancelled immediately.
This morning, the NDP announced that 1,100 memberships that may have been improperly obtained from people on the Flying Dust and Waterhen Lake First Nations will be cancelled amid allegations they were sold to people who didn’t want them.
Yesterday, leadership candidate Dwain Lingenfelter took responsibility for the memberships, saying mistakes were made by one of his campaign volunteers.
Lingenfelter’s campaign paid approximately $10,000 for the memberships, money the party says will not be refunded.
In addition to cancelling the memberships, the NDP has hired a lawyer to look into the matter.
Provincial secretary Deb McDonald says lawyer Bob Hale from Swift Current will look into the origins of this situation and how to prevent it from happening again.
McDonald hopes to have results back by early next week.
She’s not sure how much of those findings will be made public.
A Saskatchewan Party MLA says the cancelled NDP memberships raise more questions about what’s going on in the candidate’s leadership campaign.
Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA Dustin Duncan thinks it’s odd that a volunteer would have access to more than $10,000 to purchase these memberships.
Duncan says if this really is the case of one over-exuberant campaign volunteer, Lingenfelter should let that person come forward and explain their position.
He says this incident doesn’t help any political party, because it tarnishes all politicians in the eyes of the public.