On contributions

CBC follows up with more on the Lingenfelter membership story. And there's one previously-unreported piece which looks like it might be highly significant:

All of the New Democrat membership applications that are being investigated by the Saskatchewan NDP were paid for by the Dwain Lingenfelter campaign, the party says.

Party officials spent the weekend investigating 1,100 applications after concerns were raised in the Meadow Lake constituency.
...
The NDP leadership committee spent the weekend contacting applicants to find out whether they really wanted to be members of the NDP — and some didn't, McDonald said.

"The Lingenfelter campaign paid for all of them," she said.

Now, the first point to be taken from the payment details is that the issue goes at least to somebody with authority to spend significant amounts of money on behalf of the Lingenfelter campaign. But that looks to be a relatively small piece of the potential problem.

Under most circumstances - i.e. where people pay for their own memberships - Saskatchewan's Election Act, 1996 wouldn't figure to come into play. In general, the rules for donations only require that a party collect information for donations of over $25 and publicly disclose donations over $250 - so there isn't any particular concern about the party financing rules when an individual pays for his or her own membership within a party.

But it would seem to be a different story where a leadership campaign puts together a coordinated effort which results in it donating thousands of dollars to a provincial party in the name of individuals. And indeed, amounts received in membership fees are specifically included as contributions for at least some purposes under the legislation: see section 250(5), which deems membership fees or dues to be contributions for the purposes of parties' annual returns.

Now, it might be that since membership fees are specifically included in that section, they're excluded by implication from other requirements - such as that contributions in a person's name must come from that person's own money (section 239(1)). But it's not hard to see how a plan involving an entity making multiple small contributions through people who aren't even asked whether or not to attach their names to them could result in some significant potential problems. And that may mean that while the party's investigation deals with the internal ramifications for the leadership race, there may be a need for some review from Elections Saskatchewan as well to make sure the Lingenfelter campaign's process isn't on thin ice legally.