Sask. Party hopeful who donated to federal Liberals not necessarily flip-flopping: U of R political scientist

An NDP candidate in the upcoming Regina Northeast byelection is attacking a Saskatchewan Party candidate over donations made to the Liberal Party of Canada and the signing of a provincial NDP petition.

NDP candidate Yens Pedersen says that $2,119.05 in individual donations to the federal Liberals made by Sask. Party candidate Gary Grewal means he is "financially endorsing" a carbon tax.

"I don't think that it does," said Jim Farney, department head of the University of Regina's department of politics and international studies. 

"People's political alignments, to boil them down to one policy area, is usually not accurate and I think people would feel it's a stretch."

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Farney said there are several reasons someone might support the federal Liberals. While the carbon tax is one of them, there's also the legalization of marijuana, truth and reconciliation initiatives or the Liberals being the party of new Canadians.

Grewal acknowledges that he supported the federal Liberals at one point.

"But I no longer support the Liberal party financially or with my vote because of the Trudeau government's plan to impose a costly and ineffective carbon tax on Saskatchewan families," he said.

He also noted the Sask. Party, which was formed by a coalition of Progressive Conservatives and Liberals, has no formal political affiliation with any federal party.

"I have no personal ambitions ... or anything," he said. "Whatever my premier, my party, will guide me to do, I will work under the guidelines of the party."

Pedersen isn't buying Grewal's statement that he dropped his support for carbon taxes.

The federal government announced a carbon pricing plan in October 2016. Grewal made donations to the Liberals in December.

"If he was so opposed to the Liberals and the Liberals' carbon tax, you would think that donations would have stopped immediately," Pedersen said.

In a press release, the NDP called for a "made-in-Saskatchewan" plan but Pedersen did not elaborate on what that would look like. He said the NDP will release their platform at a later date. 

Farney said that people often have different loyalties at the federal and provincial levels. He pointed to the area of Regina that has elected Liberal MP Ralph Goodale many times. Portions of the ridings held by provincial cabinet ministers Tina Beaudry-Mellor and Christine Tell overlap with Goodale's federal riding, Farney notes.

Grewal flip-flopping? 

Pedersen also called out Grewal for signing a provincial NDP petition calling on the government to reverse funding cuts to Saskatchewan schools in the March 2017 provincial budget.

The province, led by Scott Moe, reinstated $30 million worth of education funding earlier this year. One of the platforms of Moe's bid to become party leader was reinstating the money.

"I am confident that Premier Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party government have listened to and addressed those concerns," Grewal said of his reasoning. 

Questionable approach by NDP

Farney said the NDP's approach is a "weird way" to attack a candidate who has already secured a nomination.

"It means that [the NDP] is attacking him for being kind of like [them] in some ways," Farney said. 

"I don't see where they can go from there. Usually you want to say 'your opponent holds beliefs that are different from us and we think ours are better' — not 'at some time in the past, he did things that we agreed with.' "

The byelection is Sept. 12 and six candidates are running. Advance voting has already begun.