The race is on

There's some very good news at the start of the Saskatchewan NDP leadership race, as the rules announced this weekend look to create a wide open field for possible contenders:

The rules for this contest will be much the same as the last, Pedersen said. Candidates will have a $200,000 spending limit, a slight increase over last time.

Nominations close six weeks before the Regina convention, and anyone who's purchased a membership up to five weeks before the convention can vote. Each member can vote in person at the convention, or by phone or online.

The party currently has 8,000 to 9,000 members, but Pedersen expects that to jump in the coming months with all of the excitement around the leadership race.

Probably the most important element of the rules is a spending limit set at a relatively low level - indeed, significantly below the amount that Dwain Lingenfelter is already rumoured to have in his back pocket as one of his preconditions to running.

The result looks to be a huge positive for the party's effort to build up both its leadership ranks and its broader membership. Because the limit has been kept at a relatively modest level, the cost of entering the race wouldn't figure to be prohibitive for any candidate with a substantial fund-raising plan.

And the limit would also seem to reduce the ability of any candidate to try to win the race based on media saturation or other paid media. Instead, the deciding factor should be the question of which contestant can best build up a support network around the province based on a combination of personal interaction, earned media and other lower-cost ways of building connections with potential NDP members. And based on the one member, one vote system there shouldn't be much doubt that the winner will need to bring in plenty of new members into the fold, as the current party membership of roughly 8,000 wouldn't even have formed a majority in the 2001 leadership race.

All of which is to say that there's now plenty of reason for optimism that the NDP's leadership race will fulfill much of its promise for party renewal. And regardless of who ends up winning, that has to be a positive result for the NDP and its supporters.