City council candidate says he’s not affiliated with Advance Regina

A candidate for Regina’s Ward 1 is distancing himself from an endorsement of a local political organization.

Speaking to reporters outside of City Hall on Wednesday morning, former roughrider Dan Rashovich said he was misrepresented by mailouts sent by the Advance Regina organization.

“I want to make it clear that I’m running independently,” he said. “I don’t want people to perceive that I’m being either funded or affiliated with Advance Regina.”

Rashovich says he filled out a questionnaire that was sent to him by the group, which then sent our flyer endorsing him based on those answers.

However, Rashovich says his answers were misrepresented as he answered several yes or no questions in paragraph form. The flyer said he did not support the planned indoor aquatic centre.

Dan Rashovich claims his answers were misrepresented by the flyer. (Submitted/Dan Rashovich)

“For example, there was one question there, ‘Do you support the Aquatic Center?’ I do support the Aquatic Center, but obviously there’s conditions and things like geothermal (heating) — we want to make sure things like that work, you have to look into those things closely,” he said.

“Then there’s also nuances in all the check marks because a lot of things are not just a yes or no. You need to have more information, you need to understand things and obviously, once you’re a councillor, you’ll get that data.”

Rashovich said he wasn’t told about the distribution of the flyers and found out about them from an email of a concerned constituent.

“I’m a man of my word and I want people to know that,” he said.

An email exchange between Dan Rashovich and Advance Regina. (Screengrab)

Rashovich said he was angry and a bit frustrated when he found out. He says after contacting Advance Regina, the organization would perform another mailout to correct the record.

980 CJME reached out to Advance Regina but did not receive a response by publication.

According to its website, Advance Regina is a group that is “frustrated with a council that prioritizes personal projects over the needs of Regina families”.

It has scorecards based on questionnaires for candidates in every ward.

On its Facebook page, Advance Regina said it was creating a local support network centred around problems at City Hall as well as promoting “common sense” policies and candidates.

Ward 2 candidate George Tsiklis also received a perfect scorecard from Advance Regina, although he also denied any affiliation with the group.

“(I’ve received) no external funding or endorsements in two elections,” he said in a press release sent on Thursday. “Solely focused on serving the community. Any group wishing to formally endorse me should contact my campaign for permission.”

Regina’s chief returning officer Jim Nicol said third-party advertising or promotion is governed by provincial legislation.

The limit for campaign contributions for mayoral candidates is $75,904 while the limit for council candidates is $12,574.

The survey from Advance Regina sent to candidates. (Dan Rashovich/submitted)

Regina’s municipal election is scheduled for next Wednesday, Nov. 13.