With the unofficial race to replace Premier Klein at the helm of the Alberta PC Party quietly underway, declared candidate and ex-cabinet minister, Mark Norris, threw down a heavy gauntlet this week to each of his would-be opponents. Norris publicly released the names of 106 of his 107 financial backers, each of whom has already donated $10,000 to his leadership campaign. It's an example that should be followed at every level of government, but especially in Ottawa.

Norris says he wants to show that he's serious about running a transparent leadership campaign, and has openly challenged other leadership contenders to do the same.

A spokesperson for leadership hopeful Jim Dinning, assured Albertans that their campaign would also be disclosing contributors once the race becomes official.

And while Alberta taxpayers should be pleased with this showing of transparency, even more pleasing would be for the same to happen federally.

Even with changes to the Canada Elections Act very little has changed to improve transparency in our federal election process.

While the federal Act does require political parties to declare contributors quarterly, contributions made to candidates and party campaigns during a federal election do not have to be declared until four months after Election Day. Ironically, the only candidate to publicly and voluntarily declare their campaign contributors during this federal election is a candidate for an Alberta PC Party leadership race who has done so possibly years in advance of his own Election Day.

In contrast, our neighbours to the South, with their often criticized campaign financing laws, are much more transparent than Canada when it comes to disclosure.

In addition to requiring quarterly contribution and post-election reports, the Internal Revenue Code also demands US presidential candidates produce a "pre-election report" detailing campaign contributions made right up to 20 days prior to Election Day. These reports must be submitted at least 12 days prior to Election Day be on-line and available to the public within 48 hours of receipt.

This provides voters with the opportunity to not only assess the platform and record of a presidential candidate, but scrutinize who is contributing to each campaign and in what amount.

Pre-election disclosure of campaign contributions has the potential to change how many electors might cast their ballot. Imagine if on January 13th the campaign contributions for all federal election candidates and all federal political parties appeared on-line and on the front pages of every daily and community newspaper across Canada.

Undecided voters, not swayed by vague promises and rhetoric would be able to see each contributor list and make a more considered decision to vote for or against a particular candidate or party. Small business owners might want to find out which party has received support from other small business owners. Public sector union members might be very interested in seeing which candidate their local union has backed. Environmentalists might want to find out which party has received contributions from large polluters.

But regardless of which party prevails in this federal election, the new government must take steps to clean up Ottawa and throw open our public institutions and processes to greater transparency and public scrutiny. Voluntarily disclosing campaign contributors before Election Day sets an important precedent and demonstrates a sincere commitment to improving transparency.