“(Regina) might be at an inflection point where people start to look at the city as more than just a service provider,” said political science professor Aaron Moore.
As Saskatchewan descends into a busy election season, voters in Regina may notice a cluster of third-party advocacy groups taking a special interest in city politics.
And it may leave some wondering what to make of their intentions.
Advance Regina, Progress Regina, Stop Catalyst, the Regina Civic Awareness Action Network (RCAAN) and the Regina District and Labour Council are the five groups that emerged in this municipal election cycle so far.
Advance Regina has garnered the most attention for its shadowy origins and possible ties to the Saskatchewan Party (unveiled by a recent CBC investigation), but they all appear to have interest in Regina’s future.
RCAAN has taken a special interest in Regina’s public school board race, seemingly through the lens of protecting parents’ rights, while Progress Regina and the RDLC have so far focused on encouraging general engagement with the democratic process.
Who are these groups?
Advance Regina formed in 2021 after city councillors backed a motion to ban oil and gas companies from advertising or taking city sponsorships.
Most of Advance Regina’s advocacy now centres on city spending, referring to it as “municipal waste,” but the group occasionally continues to make statements similar to their 2021 ad claim that city council was “in danger of being overrun by left-wing activists.”
An email newsletter sent to subscribers by Advance Regina in August and obtained by the Leader-Post, says the candidates’ being endorsed by RLDC “will likely align with union priorities, keeping special interests firmly entrenched in our city’s decision-making.”
“We know one thing for sure — these are the candidates you won’t want to support if you want to see change in Regina,” it reads.
Advance Regina has been running targeted ads on Facebook regularly over the past year, according to the site’s transparency feature. As of Oct. 4, their page has spent between $8,900 and $11,900 on targeted ads. They also rented a billboard in Regina’s downtown.
It remains unclear who makes up the executive at Advance Regina. No names are listed on the group’s site or social media.
CBC Saskatchewan linked the organization via a taxable donation receipt to charitable entity Canadians for Liveable Cities, which names Trent Fraser, Dean Klippenstine and Bruce Evans as directors. All three have ties to the Saskatchewan Party, the Conservative Party of Canada, or both.
Since then, RCAAN has continued to meet monthly at Living Hope Alliance Church and encourages membership to organize and “drive change in governmental policies, practices & elected officials” on its website.
Also on its website, RCAAN cites diversity, equity and inclusion policies in Regina Public Schools and supporting parent’s rights ideology as “current issues” of interest, among others.
The Leader-Post reached out independently to both RCAAN and Advance Regina for comment and to ask if either group was endorsing specific candidates, but did not receive any responses.
RCAAN founder Wayne Bernakevitch told CBC Saskatchewan that the group is endorsing seven trustee candidates running for Regina Public Schools: Lise Merle, Kelly Bond, Carla Taylor-Brown, Tracey Sparrowhawk, Doug Armbruster, Lee Harding and Mandeep Sinhmar.
Several of those candidates have indicated parental rights as a pillar priority of their campaign, with the exception of Armbruster who has said he is not affiliated with RCAAN.
Progress Regina is a group of local residents interested in “social justice related initiatives” and city politics, said spokesperson Krystal Lewis in an email to the Leader-Post.
The group only recently formalized with a name, and is made up of socially-conscious residents who have been meeting to discuss city policies since 2020. Progress Regina is encouraging people to take an interest in the election by running for office, volunteering with a campaign or supporting candidates in other ways.
“Progress Regina itself is not even an entity, more just an informal group, and besides having an email list and hosting an occasional meeting, does not have any infrastructure or funding,” wrote Lewis.
Lewis said Progress Regina is not affiliated with any specific candidates or endorsing anyone directly, but supports the RDLC’s list of preferred candidates.
In response to an email from the Leader-Post asking for information about the group and whether it is endorsing any candidates, founder Christopher Strain said Stop Catalyst campaign’s priorities were determined by a survey he circulated to 100 or so residents, who provided feedback on the Catalyst and other initiatives, like reopening Scarth Street to cars.
Stop Catalyst takes its direction from those survey responses. He said the group aims to be a voice for citizens opposed to “spending on huge, monolithic projects” with questionable public returns.
“Such facilities, research over the years has shown, tend not to deliver on the promises of economic redevelopment or improved public finances. They tend to be a wash at best,” wrote Strain.
Stop Catalyst is not endorsing any candidates, does not have ties to any other lobbyists or groups and is currently a “a low-budget/’no’ budget campaign” that he’s funding himself.
Regina District & Labour Council (RDLC) is possibly the most recognizable of the third-party groups, as it functions outside of election time as a coalition representing 17 unions in the city and surrounding area.
In August, RDLC publicly shared an endorsement list, which it does each election cycle, naming eight city council candidates and three school board candidates for 2024.
For city council, RDLC is endorsing: André Magnan (Ward 2), Deb Nyczai (Ward 4), Sarah Turnbull (Ward 5), Victoria Flores (Ward 6), Shobna Radons (Ward 7), Shannon Zachidniak (Ward 8), Reid Hill (Ward 9) and Chris Simmie (Ward 10).
For Regina Public Schools, RDLC is endorsing Kale MacLellan, Jeralyn Manweiler and Brandon Shae-Mutala. RDLC did not make an endorsement for mayor or for Regina Catholic Schools.
Why are these groups appearing now?
University of Manitoba political-science professor Aaron Moore says the emergence of these kinds of groups in Regina could be a symptom of the state of both city and provincial politics.
“The idea of specific groups being created around the election itself in order to champion certain councillors is unusual,” Moore said in a recent interview.
“(But) there has been a very rapid shift within the last few years to the senior levels of government taking interest at the local level.”
Moore’s research interests include a special focus on urban politics, specifically municipal elections. He said things like this tend to happen when cities make the shift from seeing themselves as “small town” to “big city.”
Such changes are usually accompanied by increasing or new social pressures — like homelessness, for example — and issues that blur jurisdictional lines tend to catch attention, he added.
“With the injection of more discussion around these things, it’s possible people are seeing, or at least they have the perception of seeing that there is more polarization,” Moore also notes.
“(Regina) might be at an inflection point where people start to look at the city as more than just a service provider and like an actual level of government dealing with substantive issues.”
When the dynamics of municipal politics are in a state of flux, Moore said often outside entities form up to capitalize on the opportunity to influence change.
City elections can be uniquely vulnerable to this for a few reasons, he said. For starters, municipal politics has no political parties or deep financial war chests to leverage.
“That significantly changes the dynamics,” said Moore. “At the municipal level, the individual candidate matters a lot because name recognition is often the most important feature a candidate has.”
This means it can be difficult for new faces to challenge incumbents, so when seats come open uncontested, Moore said outside interest tends to intensify.
Public engagement in municipal elections also tends to be apathetic and low voter turnout in addition to a large slate of candidates means it takes fewer votes to sway a seat’s outcome in a big way.
Moore said it’s not unheard-of to see provincial or federal parties, or unions try to get involved in municipal governments indirectly when an election is shaping up this way. Provincial governments may feel anxious about becoming disjointed in their relationship with big cities if councillors lean a different way politically, he explained.
“In some respects, when you have a council that is constantly on the case of the government, it’s like having another party outside of the legislature that you need to contend with,” Moore said.
“They may also see it as a place, particularly in provinces where they aren’t being successful getting elected, that is an inroad into governance at the local level.”
Regina’s looking at a situation much like this, with at least five out of 10 city council positions up for grabs due to several councillors not seeking re-election.
Similarly, in the 2020 election, just 21.26 per cent of eligible voters in Regina actually cast a ballot; some councillors won their seats that year by margins smaller than a hundred votes.
Saskatchewan is also well into a provincial election year, with some pundits projecting the Saskatchewan Party may lose footholds to the NDP especially in urban ridings, come this October.
What rules do these groups have to follow?
In Saskatchewan, the answer to that question is very few.
Both the City of Regina and Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Government Relations confirmed there is currently no relevant legislation governing the involvement of third-party groups in municipal elections.
The provincial Local Government Elections Act speaks only to the act of “undue influence” as unlawful, according to Section 185.11, but sets a fairly high bar for what constitutes undue influence.
In order to violate this section of the act, a person must “make use or threaten to make use of any force, violence or restraint,” or “practice a form of intimidation” that impacts a person’s free will to vote. This could mean pressuring someone to vote a certain way or to abstain from voting at all, or to “impede, prevent, or otherwise interfere” with a person’s ability to go vote.
Financial contribution laws are also minimal. It’s not against any rules for large or out-of-province donors to back a campaign, including unions or corporations. Candidate endorsements are allowed.
The firmest line drawn in the sand is the one around campaign spending. Candidates must pay for their own advertising and report that spending, alongside donors who give a large enough amount.
However, Regina’s election bylaw doesn’t require candidates to disclose campaign financials until 90 days after the election, meaning that information isn’t public until well after polling results are announced.
All of this leaves voters to do their own research before casting a ballot, which Moore said can be a lot to expect given how minimally invested the public often is in municipal elections.
For voters who are attempting to navigate a political terrain like Regina’s, Moore has simple advice: “Ignore the background noise.”
“Do your best to find the information candidates are putting out there and look for yourself whether their platform is actually representative of what you support or don’t support,” he said.
“If you’re hearing these groups say things, suggesting you vote one way or the other, take the time to look up who they are. If you’re not provided information or specifics, or even a name of a person to contact, then be wary. I would certainly give more time to an organization where you can clearly identify who are the people involved.”
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