Dear Editor
As John Cairns pointed out in his commentary, "Will cranky voter trend spread to B'fords?," (News-Optimist, Oct. 13) he sees the crankiness of voters in the United States as a possible North America-wide trend that could become part of our next election here in the Battlefords. I'm pretty sure he's wrong.
For one thing, I believe even the staunch supporters of our right-wing government in Regina are far more reasonable and better educated than the supporters of the "know-nothing" right-wing parties in the United States. Parties like today's "Tea Party," by the way, have a very long history in the United States, although lately the mindless anger so characteristic of them seems to have ramped up a bit.
Yes, I'll admit that the Ford phenomenon in Toronto does seem in some ways quite close to what is happening south of the border, but the other examples Cairns mentions are actually based on some form of reality. There is a difference between outrage over policies felt to be bad, and outrage for its own sake. As Cairns points out, the Tea Party seems to be "a movement of the discontented."
In just a little over a year from now, we in the Battlefords will have a chance to vote on what direction we want our province to be heading. I think the choice will be quite clear. We can go back to stable rational policies that put the people of Saskatchewan first, or we can continue with the Brad Wall policies based on right-wing, trickle-downideology which is anti-labour and favours big international corporations.
I don't think the people here will be thrown off track by appeals tothe cranky side of our nature.
Russell Lahti
Battleford
