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Positively Negative

Nov 9, 2011 | 4:25 PM

for paNOW

The NDP did some spectacular spin-doctoring after their biggest defeat in ages.

“We ran a positive campaign,” was the theme of their rush to cover the horrible results of an election that was a foregone conclusion. Nobody foresaw the disastrous results for the NDP though, in either camp.

If the NDP wanted to run a positive campaign, they would have had Dwain Lingenfelter resign before, not after, the election. Even when he is trying to be as positive as can be, he is negative. No one had forgotten 'the loser' comment. It, and other comments about Wall and the Saskatchewan Party turned everything he did sour for him. The former leader put the resources managements on high alert. His plans to give everybody something super, at the expense of the potash corporations in particular, made a lot of people nervous. If an NDP provincial government demanded too much, would the corporations go elsewhere? There is lots of potash 'elsewhere'.

Although the Saskatchewan Party put out some pretty negative footage of Lingenfelter, they had a lot of plus signs going into the campaign. The lowered debt, strong economy and the return of people, originally from Saskatchewan, to raise the population to its highest level ever, are all pretty positive reasons to vote for them. They didn't make 'positive' but unreasonable promises. The NDP did and those planks of the platform were designed to please city dwellers, yet they lost seats were in cities. Smart people who could see no one could afford endless 'pie in the sky' led the city dwellers to the SP. Who knows where the NDP's usual city supporters were on election day.

Problems with unions casts a shadow on the next few years of SP government, but Wall exudes the promise to take Saskatchewan go forward. Saskatchewan has forged ahead to be a 'have province', a leader in Canada, and “We aren't going back”, Wall assures us.

That's pretty positive.