Trust issues

Murray Mandryk goes into detail about the Saskatchewan PC trust fund issue - and it looks like the fun is just beginning for the Saskatchewan Party:

(O)nce you get past personalities and whatever personal animosities may exist, Swenson and Schmidt actually make a very compelling case.

- The agreement that put the Progressive Conservatives into hiatus was specifically for two consecutive elections. We have had two consecutive elections, so Swenson and Schmidt do have an obligation to be doing what they are doing.

- Three of five trust fund trustees are extremely active in the Saskatchewan Party, including trust spokesman Doug Emsley, who helps run the Saskatchewan Party's communication firm...

- The decision of the trust to cut off funding to the dormant Progressive Conservative party (it last provided them $35,000 in March 2005 to run an office and continue some form of existence) suspiciously comes only after talk of revitalizing the party. If the trust fund was so concerned about how this paltry sum of money was being spent (less than half the amount the fund earns in annual interest, Swenson said) why didn't it cut off funding years ago?

Mandryk notes that any PC revival would coincide with the Weyburn-Big Muddy byelection...which makes it in the Saskatchewan Party's clear interest to try to bury both the issue and the revitalization efforts as best they can. That apparently puts the PC fund trustees who have since shifted their alliances in an obvious conflict of interest. And if that's a situation that the Saskatchewan Party is willing to ignore in opposition, then voters will have all the more reason to make sure the Sask Party never gets the chance to govern.