It’s been with some interest that I’ve been reading about the Sask’ Party Government’s want to dismiss the notion of making the acting Chief Electoral Officer in our lovely province of Saskatchewan the permanent man on the job.  The post has been vacant for about a year and a half after the former CEO, Jean Ouellet was dismissed from his position.

The reason this interest’s me is because I was once the president of the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party and had the pleasure of dealing with Mr. Wilkie a few times here and there.  He was the go to guy for many things unless it was political party finances, in which case Brent Nadon was a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge.  Mr. Wilkie however was another roving encyclopedia found at the end of a telephone line who was always ready ready to help with the incredible learning curve that a new political party experiences.  As the assistant CEO, Dave Wilkie was exceptionally knowledgeable about all things regarding the political machinations of the province in the most technical sense.  In short, if the CEO wasn’t there, he was more than able to easily fill the role.

This all makes sense up to now because who better to fill the shoes of Jean Ouellet than his assumed future successor?  Well, apparently, and for no real explained reason, the current government has skipped him over.  It’s very odd and inexplicable because the government’s own committee recommended him and the fellow who said he was the best candidate for the job, a certain Don Morgan, (Minister of Justice and the AG) is now being put in the uncomfortable position of having to try his best to avoid explaining why he now thinks Wilkie just isn’t the right man for the job.

Frankly, this is disgusting.

In my own dealings with Wilkie, I found him (sometimes almost frustratingly) to be the type of person who was absolutely unwilling to be partisan in understanding his role in the Sask’ Elections office.  He was fair and even handed, helpful and best of all, overtly knowledgeable about his office’s role in the political sphere of the province.

If Dave Wilkie has been skipped over to be the new Chief Electoral Officer in Saskatchewan, I can imagine that it is for no other reason than political expediency.  In fact, I would bet money that the reason for this stupidity is none other than a political one.  Dave Wilkie is an honourable and knowledgeable fellow; I know this from first hand experience.  I’m simply disgusted (as per usual) at how the Sask’ Party has approached this matter while in government.

So far, speculation has been offered up that perhaps Wilkie is investigating a member of the Sask Party and that this is why he’s not being considered for the role of CEO.  You know, I really do wonder about that.

In my last post, I bust a gut laughing at the SDAP legal disclaimer on their website.  In my previous post, you can take a gander at what that said about even accessing their website if you weren’t a party supporter.  So since then, it was quickly removed.  Of course, there are still gems to be found.  On the same page, the following can be found.

Privacy Policy Immutability

• SDAP Privacy Will Only Improve Your Protection And Never Become More Lax The Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party takes seriously the privacy of all Saskatchewan people. We are currently working with the Saskatchewan Elections Office to improve the privacy of Saskatchewan political contributors.

I should be taking screen shots of this stuff.  Honestly.

I would definitely like to know how an unregistered political party is working with Elections Saskatchewan on anything.  I mean, perhaps some one involved with the SDAP is working with them but an organization that doesn’t exist can’t do much as an organization can it?

Man, and I thought delays on a coming contract would result in boredom.

Ok, so I have to add to this post because I can’t stop the laughter.  I decided to take a screen shot.  Any idea how a political party that’s not registered, has never fielded a candidate (I forgot that in fact they did field a candidate in a by-election once under the SK Heritage Party banner) or even tells you who the leadership consists of could have pulled this off?  I wonder where they got the picture.  I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the picture in the screen shot isn’t an SDAP convention of any sort.

Oh and since I’m holding down the couch today, a quick phone call to Elections Saskatchewan results in “Democratic Action Party?  I’ve never actually heard of them.”

The SDAP are still hanging around.  Don’t know who the SDAP are or how mentally unbalanced they come across?  Read on.

Prairie politics are by tradition, fascinating with the possible exception of Manitoba.  I mean yeah sure, they had Gary Filmon who by all accounts is considered by many to have been a part of vote rigging in the mid 90s but he wasn’t found guilty in that scandal.  Shucks, even if he was, it wouldn’t have amounted to much more than dirty pool in politics which is par for the course.  So yeah, Manitoba doesn’t really get a spot in this discussion but Alberta and Saskatchewan have an interesting history of various political groups causing changes in the landscape here.

As with any colourful land scape, you might end up seeing something that just doesn’t seem quite in place or perhaps something that just catches your eye as seemingly different and fascinating.  Heck, since we’re talking prairie politics, you might just see a ten car pile up hovering above a herd of antelope crossing the golden gate bridge in the oil patch.  Yes, it can be damned odd and this brings us to the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party.

The SDAP was registered as an official political party in Saskatchewan some time ago and was voluntarily deregistered later on, losing its party status.  From what I remember, I believe that took place before they even had a chance to participate in a provincial election.  Somewhere around 2007 I think.  Anyhoo, while they were in existence, they had some incredible claims.  At Giant Political Mouse, the claims came to be known that they had over 36,000 members.  Heck, so powerful were they that they even had a thriving legal department which at one point, the person posting on behalf of the SDAP started signing at the end of their posts and e-mails.  Just check out the GPM post, it’s hilarious.

But yeah, anyhow, digging back in my memory, I can recall having contacted the guy behind this thing myself.  I never actually managed to figure out his name I don’t think but the exchange was priceless.  All about how the SDAP was leaving Elections Saskatchewan behind, forming their own electoral authority and changing the face of the province as we knew it.  I was further invited to their sprawling office (supposedly thousands of square feet) to be served with some kind of legal notice or some such thing.  It really was funny.

So the reason I blog about the SDAP today is because I noticed that they still have a website hosted on a Shaw account.  It can be found here.  It’s interesting of course that they would maintain a web presence as a political party even though they aren’t a political party in the province.  Also on youtube, there’s an “SDAP 2011″ channel with a place holder video of sorts so who knows what the future holds.

I really hope that the SDAP comes back for the next provincial election.  In a world of political horse hockey, it’s nice to have a few chuckles at the expense of people who have obviously lost their sanity trying to cope with politicians.

Oh and about their website, just a word of warning as I stifle my laughter long enough to type.  This is from their legal disclaimer.

YOU MUST BE A SASKATCHEWAN RESIDENT & CITIZEN: TO ACCESS THIS WEBSITE. All communication (specially including all information of any kind contained in this web site) between the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party and Citizens of Saskatchewan is Private Communication protected under the Criminal Laws of Canada; accessing it constitutes a criminal trespass.

Read that?  You’re not allowed to even look at the website if you’re not a “citizen” of Saskatchewan.  Never mind that the province doesn’t dole out citizenship but…aww heck.  If that language wasn’t clear enough for you,

All Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party Web pages and all information, symbols, formats, graphics and everything else including the physical web space on the servers is Private and is Private Communication between the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party and the Citizens of Saskatchewan who support the SDAP. It is a Criminal Act under the Criminal Code of Canada to violate private communications as determined solely by the Chief Official Agent of the SDAP or to view, download, save or otherwise use information on SDAP web pages or other formats in any manner by the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party except for the sole purpose of supporting the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party.

Oh my…I really can’t stop myself from busting a gut.

EDIT:
OOH OOH OOH!  OH THEY HAVE A TWITTER PAGE TOO!

http://twitter.com/SDAP2011

That does it.  I’m a follower!  I wonder if they’ll prosecute me for looking at their twitter feed since I’m not a supporter of the unregistered party that wants my vote.