In a “pinch yourself to make sure you’re awake” moment, the Dickweed Wildrose Party has conceptually agreed with the NDP to place a limitation on how much any given company can donate to political parties, even if they disagree on the exact limit:

Each party had made submissions to the legislature’s special committee on ethics and accountability, which is reviewing provincial election laws along with whistleblower and conflict of interest legislation.

Alberta currently has a $15,000 annual limit on donations to parties and a $1,000 cap on donations to a single constituency association, with a limit of $5,000 total to constituency associations, with those amounts doubling in an election year.

The amounts are among the highest in Canada and far exceed the federal donation limit, which is currently $1,525 to a party and $1,525 in total to constituency associations.

In the NDP’s proposal, the party calls for a $4,000 cap on total annual donations to Alberta political entities, while the Wildrose party wants a $5,000 limit on contributions to parties.

Jessica Littlewood, the NDP MLA who chairs the ethics and accountability committee, said she wouldn’t speculate about the impact of the parties’ submissions on the committee.

But while no decisions have yet been made about amounts, there is a consensus among committee members that lowering the donation limit is a priority, she said.

With America’s big money giving us a splendid example of why it’s important to keep a leash on corporate lobbyists, I am thrilled to see my provincial government agree on a problem. I don’t think I care about the difference between a $4,000 cap and a $5,000 one, but the fact that the Wildrose Party isn’t immediately flailing in their seats is… remarkably restrained, by their standards.

So credit where credit’s due, I guess: Good job Wildrose Party, for not whining about the NDP’s good idea, even if the finer points of the policy have to be settled.

This was, for the record, another of Notley’s campaign promises. She seems to be doing pretty well so far. Only issue I’ve got my eye on is how she handles negotiations with First Nations affected by her pipeline proposal(s).

-Shiv