As Sandra Masters was driving home after an all-candidates mayoral forum on the evening of Oct. 27, she was shocked to see a billboard directly targeting her.
“Tired of this experience, Regina?” asked the billboard, which featured a photo of Masters and two councillors running for re-election, Bob Hawkins and Jason Mancinelli.
The first thing that jumped out to Masters, who’s running for her second term in the Nov. 13 election, was the branding on the billboards: an anonymous group called Common Sense Regina.
“Social media has come to the streets,” she recalls thinking. “You can put any handle you want and say anything you want.”
Another Common Sense-branded billboard featured her image with three words: “Waste. Crime. Dysfunction.”
Masters noted that any advertising she or any other candidate displays can’t be anonymous; it must say which candidate authorized it.
It’s also expensive. Masters said billboards like that can cost thousands of dollars.
As a mayoral candidate, she can’t spend more than $76,000 on her campaign. Councillors can spend no more than $12,600.
But, Masters said, the rules don’t stop anonymous groups from spending as much as they would like
“I would assume that they would have a candidate for mayor that they’re supporting,” Masters said in an interview on Nov. 1, though the billboards aren’t promoting anyone in particular.
“It feels underhanded. A way to break the rules,” she said. “If you’re the candidate they’re supporting, you get to stay perfectly clean.”
An Alberta spokesperson
After the billboards went up last week, Common Sense Regina put out a news release identifying a spokesperson: Peter McCaffrey. He lives in Alberta, where he runs the Alberta Institute, a libertarian think-tank.
In an interview on Oct. 31, McCaffrey told CBC the recently-formed network of “Common Sense” organizations is focused on municipal politics in 14 communities including Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina.
He said the organizations are also libertarian, advocating for limited government focused on core services rather than getting involved in health, education, social services or civil liberties issues. He claims the Regina organization has more than 2,000 supporters, activists and volunteers.
“As you can see from the billboards, what we’re really wanting is to have a more common sense mayor and council after the election,” he said.
“We’re not promoting any particular candidates. We just really want to get people thinking about, ‘What is the job of a municipal government?'”
The group’s news release said city hall should focus more on potholes and snow removal, and less on “flashy non-essential projects.”
This is not the first anonymous advocacy group to weigh in on Regina’s upcoming election. Advance Regina has also been running ads with a similar “back to basics” emphasis.
McCaffrey said Common Sense has no connection to Advance Regina. He said the leadership of the Common Sense chapter in Regina is approximately six people, but he wouldn’t say who they are or who funds the organization.
It’s a matter of policy, he said.
“I think it’s a sad reflection of the times we live in, but the reality is that people who put their names forward open themselves up to attack, and people just aren’t willing to do that and in the current time,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we live in an era where if you go public with political views, you open yourself up to being attacked and denigrated and particularly, depending on your line of work, that could be very problematic.”
An organization paying for attack billboards during Regina’s municipal election refuses to disclose who is behind it.
‘Dripping in irony’
Bob Hawkins, one of the councillors targeted on the billboard, said in a Nov. 1 interview that McCaffrey’s response is “dripping in irony.”
He said McCaffrey calls it “unfortunate” that people are attacked for their views, but speaks for a group that does “nothing but attack and yet they’re hiding in the shadows.”
Hawkins said a billboard attack is the opposite of good-faith debate. He said he has never seen negative advertising like this in a Regina election.
“There’s nothing common sense about their approach to politics,” said Hawkins, who notes that Regina residents show up to virtually every council meeting to express their views — and often criticisms.
Residents “are prepared to put their names and show their face on the positions that they’re taking. That facilitates debate,” Hawkins said.
By contrast, “this kind of secrecy, this being shrouded in the shadows, that doesn’t permit political debate, doesn’t permit fact-checking, doesn’t avoid exaggeration,” he said.
“It also lacks courage.”
McCaffrey said it’s OK to publicly criticize candidates because they are asking for the power to run the city and spend taxpayers’ money. He said it’s different for private citizens.
“The alternative is actually allowing people to be bullied into silence and not be able to voice their opinion,” he said.
“If he thinks our billboard saying it’s time for a common sense mayor and council encourages people to vote against him, I guess that means he thinks he’s not a common sense councillor?” McCaffery wrote in a text exchange with CBC.
Targeting 3 candidates
McCaffrey said he and his anonymous colleagues decided to put Masters, Hawkins and Mancinelli on the billboard because they “are emblematic of the challenges that we saw at city hall in the last term and they’re running again.”
“We’re not going to highlight all of the previous councillors who aren’t even running again,” he said. “That would not make sense.”
Masters said she finds it curious that she, Hawkins and Mancinelli have been targeted while other incumbents haven’t.
“I guess the question is who’s not included?” she said.
CBC asked McCaffrey if he planned to target other incumbents like Lori Bresciani, a former councillor now running for mayor, and councillors Terina Nelson and Shanon Zachidniak.
He said no.
“We’re not trying to target specific candidates and endorsements and encourage people to vote for specific people. We’re trying to get people to think about city hall overall,” McCaffrey said.
Reached by phone, Terina Nelson said she has not been endorsed by or even approached by any third-party group.
Shanon Zachidniak told CBC that she has been endorsed by the Regina and District Labour Council. She said she is disappointed by these attacks on her colleagues, which she said are the sorts of things that might drive good people from politics. She said she’s confused that some incumbents are being targeted, while others like her are being left alone.
Lori Bresciani told CBC she has no connection to any third-party group. She agreed to CBC’s request to do an interview, but that call didn’t happen.
An unregistered non-profit
Hawkins said he worries that this anonymous group isn’t just running negative ads, it’s also gathering data and money through its website.
“They very quickly want you to put your name in and to make a donation,” Hawkins said. “I believe these organizations will harvest these names and use them in an effort to get the political vote out through robocalls.”
In a follow-up text message Saturday, CBC asked McCaffrey if the group intended to use the data it has gathered to get out the vote.
“If the councillor has any evidence that we’ve told anyone to vote for or against him or any particular councillor I’d like to see it,” McCaffrey replied.
- Do you have information relevant to this story? Email Geoff Leo at geoff.leo@cbc.ca.
In the initial interview, CBC asked McCaffrey if there is a registered corporate entity behind the Common Sense organizations. He said there is, but that he didn’t know the name.
“I don’t have it to hand because it’s a network. But I’d be happy to send you the information,” he said.
When a corporate entity is registered, the names of the organization’s directors are listed in a publicly accessible document. That would reveal at least some of the people behind the Common Sense network.
McCaffrey didn’t send the information, so CBC followed up.
“I’ve asked our lawyer what the current status of the various paperwork is. I’ve told him it’s urgent so will hopefully have an answer for you later tonight,” McCaffery replied by text.
The next day he provided this update.
“Lawyer says there’s a federal non-profit incorporation being worked on for the restructure of the network, but as of right now, it’s just an unincorporated non-profit.”
Hawkins says the entire thing is troubling.
“This shadowy organization from Alberta is not transparent at all,” he said.