Swift Current NDP News

The Sask Party sees dead people...I mean porn. Apparently the Sask Party is charging that the NDP are putting subliminal messages into its advertising. The Leader Post put the story on the front page as if it were fact. Here is the picture that they are frothing about:

Funny huh? The clearest letters are P, R, T, N. OH MY GOD! They are promoting PRTN...AAHHHH! Those bastards! Think of the children whose minds will be warped by the idea of PRTN! Even if you take the blurry "O" into account (even though the "F" is just as clear), you still get "PORTN". What is PORTN? I guess the Sask Party find it easy to ignore the clear "T", especially since it blows up their entire batshit nuts tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory.

I'm not surprised, because conservatives will often cherry-pick facts that support their allegation, ignoring any that don't jive with their theories. Of course this accusation is slight of hand by the Sask Party to attempt to distract the public from the message that the public doesn't really know where Brad Wall stands on the issues that matter. We should demand that Brad Wall go on the record explaining why he has changed his mind to the NDP view on so many issues. But then again, actually going on the record is how the NDP got the ammunition for the ad in the first place.

Oh, and as for the Sask Party's allegation that the NDP is calling the people of Saskatchewan sheep. It's called a metaphor you dimwits, the NDP is saying that the Sask Party says what people want to hear, but once in power, will betray the voters.

Or it simply could mean that the Saskatchewan Party is really into porn and sees it everywhere. Maybe that could be the Sask Party's election slogan "Vote Saskatchewan Party, we never stop thinking about Porn".

I often read the MLA reports in our local paper in Swift Current, and for the most part, fight the expulsion of bile at the stupidity of most of the statements contained within. Jeff Potts wrote a letter to the editor in response to one of Brad Wall's reports. I am posting it here, with Mr. Pott's consent. Enjoy!

Editor:
MLA Brad Wall’s latest, report to constituents was improperly titled. It should have been called my fictional report to constituents.

In fact, there are so many incongruities in Wall’s "report" that it is difficult to address them all in a letter to the editor.

Wall continues to lament the fact that election dates in Saskatchewan are not fixed and thus we have to play a "guessing game." He seems to be suggesting that the NDP government has somehow acted improprietously by following normal parliamentary conventions. The only government in the history of Saskatchewan which didn’t call an election within the normal four-year term was the Conservative government of Grant Devine which refused to face the public amidst corruption charges and nearly bankrupting the province. At the time, Wall was an advisor(sic) to the premier. Did he advise him to call an election within the four-year period, or did he recommend holding onto power? Further, one of the best reasons to have non-fixed election dates is the fact that many Saskatchewan people live in rural areas. Both seeding and harvesting are dependent upon weather and believe it or not, the NDP has set election dates to try and ensure that as many people as possible are able to get to the polls. That’s why they don’t have elections at Christmas or summer vacation or during the times when farmers are out in the field.

Wall’s fiction continues with his "accounting" of Saskatchewan’s economic situation. He says that the government is on a unprecedented spending spree without regard for fiscal responsibility. Pshaw.

Exactly which spending is Wall talking about? Funding for the new hospital? Funding for the Civic Center project? If Wall opposed the provincial government from funding those projects, he could have said so from the outset. That would have been honest. Instead, Wall has chosen to throw mud at the NDP with the hope that some of it will stick.

The truth of the matter is that the NDP could give Wall a schooling when it comes to fiscal responsibility. The NDP, saddled with over $12 billion of conservative debt, made the tough decisions, balanced the budget, paid down long term debt and then reduced the taxes on Saskatchewan residents which had been imposed by the Conservatives (the Tories were the ones who raised the PST to 9%).

But I’ve gone on long enough. Voters out there with a conservative mindset aren’t ones to be swayed by the facts. That’s what’s truly lamentable.

Jeff Potts
Swift Current

2 Canadian soldiers and 1 Afghan interpreter were killed when their vehicle was struck with an IED on Wednesday evening. Read about it here.

Master Cpl. Christian Duchesne of the 5th Ambulance company, based out of Valcartier, Que., was named as one of the soldiers killed by the Department of National Defence late Wednesday night.
...
Another soldier and two Canadian journalists were also hurt in the incident, which occurred during a joint operation with the Afghan National Army referred to as Operation Eagle Eye.

That brings the total Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 69 and 1 diplomat.

Pte. Simon Longtin was killed by roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Sunday. 67 Canadian Soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and 1 diplomat.

Gerry Ritz, who once described himself as a pit bull (thereby insulting the integrity of the breed), was rewarded by his master, Stephen Harper, with the portfolio of Agriculture Minister. Ritz was rewarded for NOT standing up for the residents of Saskatchewan during the battle over equalization. He repeated his mantra over and over again that Saskatchewan should be happy at whatever "King" Harper decides to give us. He supports the breaking of promises and the usurpation of the Canadian Wheat Board.

Harper clearly wanted someone whose hostility and blind obedience would ensure that co-operation with the sitting, and future Saskatchewan government, would be minuscule and discounting.

But Saskatchewan's NDP government -- which has been embroiled in a fierce battle with the Harper government over what it says is a broken campaign promise on equalization that has cost the province hundreds of millions of dollars -- met news of his appointment with barely disguised irritation.

Government Relations Minister Harry Van Mulligen said Ritz was the most aggressive -- to the point of being insulting -- defender of the federal government among Saskatchewan MPs.

"I think the very clear message from the prime minister here is that he wants a continuation of the hostility that we see between Ottawa and Saskatchewan," he told reporters at the legislature.

Liberal House leader and Wascana MP Ralph Goodale said Saskatchewan went from having two members of the ministry to one, an unacceptable ratio considering Saskatchewan's 12 Tory MPs make up nearly 10 per cent of the government caucus.