The application form that prospective candidates for the Conservative Party of Canada must fill out is a long one, with 22 pages of questions meant to illuminate the backgrounds of those who want to become MPs.
A lot of it is routine stuff. Why do you want to be a candidate for the Conservative Party? What election campaign experience do you have? How long have you lived in the electoral district?
There are also questions meant to reveal things that might be politically embarrassing, so that the candidate nomination committee and the interim council of the party can screen out unwanted candidates. Have you ever been charged with a criminal offence? Do you support the views of any group that promotes separatism? Have you been engaged in any activities that promote hatred?
None of those questions should have given Grant Devine any problems. Although the former Saskatchewan premier led one of the most corrupt governments in Canadian history, from 1982 to 1991, he was never implicated in any wrongdoing himself. He is a nationalist and a man of moderate, conservative values.
True, you have to wonder about the leadership qualities of a premier on whose watch 16 Conservative MLAs and caucus workers committed fraud and breach of trust. But nowhere on the nomination form is there a question that asks a candidate if any of his colleagues ran afoul of the law.
Regardless, the party this week refused him the right to run in his riding, or any other. Maybe he had trouble with the question that asks: "Have you ever been dismissed from employment for cause? If YES, give details." That would have been a tough one, given the way Saskatchewan voters swept Mr. Devine's government from office in 1991, appearing to end his political career forever.
But time heals, and voters forgive. Mr. Devine was encouraged by Conservative MP and recent party leader Peter MacKay to make a comeback. He found that the people in the riding of Souris-Moose Mountain were supportive, and decided to re-enter public life. He was shocked to be told he couldn't run as a Conservative.
The party has not said why it rejected Mr. Devine, but officials apparently fear his candidacy might detract from moral attacks on the Liberals over the sponsorship scandal. That's not fair. Mr. Devine was never linked to scandal himself, and should not be refused the right to let his name stand now.