TRUE COLOURS SHOW

I was recently disturbed and surprised by a negative political ad on television.

I know that all political parties advertise from time to time, even when there isn’t an election campaign going on. What was especially disturbing about this ad was that it was sponsored by the Saskatchewan Party. I had naturally thought it was by Harper’s Conservative party, because the ad was so negative against the federal NDP leader and other members of the party

I know that the Saskatchewan Party, too, is a rightwing party with a meanspirited political philosophy similar to that of the Conservatives. However, I also believed that Brad Wall is too clever a politician to be seen to be in lockstep with Stephen Harper.

Most of the undermining done so far by the Wall government of the social network established by Saskatchewan governments for more than 50 years — such as its past and present rounds of legislation against labour unions, the axing of the tax benefits to the local movie industry, removal of committed funding to Station 20 West and low-key moves to begin the privatization of Crown corporations — has been done with little fanfare and a lot of earnest-sounding claims of having Saskatchewan values.

I think the Saskatchewan Party’s sponsorship of a Harper-style negative ad could be the start of a more honest public display of its ultraright, American-style, divisive and negative political direction. Russell Lahti Battleford