Percentage of Sask. Party candidates with drunk driving convictions close to average: SGI data

Last Friday, the Saskatchewan Party disclosed that six candidates have previous convictions for drunk driving — almost 10 per cent of the 61 candidates running in the fall election.

Data provided by SGI suggests that the candidates' conviction rate may be close to the provincial average.

SGI's data says 4.1 per cent of active drivers in the province have had convictions for an impaired driving offence since 1995.

Three of the candidates in the list the Sask Party disclosure list were convicted since 1995, which works out to 4.9 per cent the party's slate.

SGI noted that some drivers have multiple impaired driving convictions, but said that for this data set they were only counted once. The data only counts people who currently have a driver's licence but includes suspended drivers. 

The data includes convictions anywhere in Canada but not all convictions outside of Canada and it does not include charges that did not result in a conviction. 

Party says candidates 'learned from the mistake'

The Saskatchewan Party's news release last Friday said the party made the convictions public as part of its "candidate disclosure process."

In follow-up emails, executive director Patrick Bundrock said these were the only candidates with criminal records and all of the charges were for alcohol-related impaired driving.

Bundrock said the disclosure was made in the interest of public transparency and disclosure.

"Each of these individuals has learned from the mistake they made, in some cases many years ago, and has gone on to have successful careers and records of community service," Bundrock said in an email. 

"We believe voters will evaluate each of these candidates based on the entirety of their history and record of service."

John Tzupa, NDP provincial secretary and CEO, said in an email that the party plans on disclosing information about candidates ahead of the campaign, "including this type of information, demographic info and more background info on our team."

The provincial election is slated for Oct. 26.

Changing attitudes toward impaired driving

Saskatchewan has one of the worst records in the country when it comes to drunk driving. Statistics Canada data from 2015 showed the province had the highest impaired driving rate among the provinces.

Newer data from SGI suggests attitudes toward impaired driving may be changing, with impaired driving fatalities and injuries in 2019 the lowest on record.  

SGI credits the trend to increased enforcement, stronger legislation and more awareness of the importance of driving sober or getting a safe ride home.