On validation

With the Saskatchewan NDP leadership race nearing its conclusion - and with at least three of the camps making regular media appearances as a result - I've fallen out of the habit of trying to document every endorsement or policy announcement. But it's worth noting one fairly striking pattern that's emerged in the policy releases from the respective camps.

For both Dwain Lingenfelter and Yens Pedersen, policy announcements have consisted entirely of a statement of the candidate's position. Lingenfelter has released more detailed written policy statements which sometimes feature examples from abroad or Saskatchewan's history (along with liberal doses of criticism of the Wall government), while Pedersen has mostly worked through news conferences where he's looked to inject a soundbite or two into the public consciousness on his preferred issues. But neither has given any indication of third-party endorsements for their plans.

Meanwhile, as I've noted before, Deb Higgins' policies tend to be ones which find outside validation either in their current use elsewhere, or in previous reports within the Saskatchewan NDP such as Warren McCall's on post-secondary education and Peter Prebble's on the environment.

In contrast, Ryan Meili's last few announcements have included an added feature. Rather than merely announcing his SaskPharm idea on its own, Meili's press release also featured direct endorsements of the policy itself from two Saskatchewan professors, including former Deputy Minister to the Premier and Executive Director of the Romanow Commission Dr. Greg Marchildon. Likewise, the launch of his rural and agricultural policy featured Nettie Wiebe endorsing not only Meili personally, but his plan as well. (And even his news release on the use of social networking - though not related to a specific policy - was paired with a statement from an Alberta political scientist praising Meili's strategy.)

Based on that trend, Meili's campaign seems to have taken a subtle but important step past any of his competitors. And notwithstanding Meili's talk about evidence-based policy, it's not one that I would necessarily have seen coming from a candidate whose first, second and third priority throughout the campaign has simply been to get his name known.

But apparently Meili has found time to work some successful outside policy consultation into his agenda. Which means that while all of the candidates have put forward a set of ideas and argued in favour of them throughout the campaign, Meili looks to be the only one actively consulting outside experts about his policies - and is apparently receiving a positive response in the process. And that in turn both signals his commitment to seeing the policies through to implementation, and gives him a potential head start in actually doing so.