The Ward 10 scandal in Calgary may yet prove to be the best thing that has ever happened to Alberta taxpayers.

In the 2004 Calgary civic election, individuals tied to the Margot Aftergood campaign conspired to request hundreds of special ballots on behalf of unsuspecting residents of Calgary's Ward 10. They then illegally voted on these residents behalf, temporarily giving the win to Mrs. Aftergood. This "ballot-box stuffing" was immediately caught by election staff and a provincial inspection team was sent in to determine how this could have happened.

The Clark Inspection found what many insiders already knew about Alberta's municipal election process, it is in serious need of repair. So, the Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister moved quickly to create a review committee of Alberta's Local Authorities Election Act.

The Alberta government, through the recommendations of this committee has a great opportunity to not only fix the holes that led to the Ward 10 scandal, but to introduce transparency and real democratic reforms into the municipal election process.

Whether you're in Red Deer, Calgary, Ottawa or Winnipeg, municipal election campaigns cost a lot of money to run - often hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier spent $834,881 on his 2001 election campaign, the most spent in Alberta's history.

Who contributes to these campaigns A quick look at the candidate contribution disclosures from the five municipalities in Alberta that require some form of contribution disclosure, clearly shows land developers and their peripherals, public sector unions and the candidates themselves fund the vast majority of the campaigns in Alberta's largest centres.

Campaign contribution disclosure is an essential tool for transparency of the electoral process. Voters have the right to know who will be influencing the decisions of their elected officials.

Since all five of the municipalities in Alberta with disclosure laws require candidates to disclose their contributions no sooner than 90 days after the election, very few taxpayers actually take the time to see who donated to their elected officials.

Yet, imagine if every single candidate had to publicly declare who had contributed to their campaign five days prior to Election Day. If candidates are going to have to declare their contributions anyway, why not do so before the vote

This could change how taxpayers cast their ballots. If you were an undecided voter you might be very interested in learning that a candidate you had been considering accepted a sizable donation from a land developer who had a controversial project awaiting council approval. Or, you might be very keen to learn that your candidate of choice accepted a large donation from the local public sector union whose contract was about to be up for re-negotiation.

These elected officials are making major decisions with your tax dollars. At the very least you should have the ability to make an informed vote. Pre-disclosure of campaign contributions would unquestionably help a great number of voters make an informed choice. It would also be a very public display of that old transparency thing so many politicians like to talk about, but so very seldom practice. In the end, candidates who failed to disclose would face the ultimate judgement from their true bosses - the voters.

Pre-election disclosure of contributions is just one step in opening up our governments to greater public scrutiny. Who knows, if they try it here in Alberta and it works, it might just crack the door open for greater transparency throughout all levels of government.