That Mr. Harper cares little about Saskatchewan should be obvious. He assumes we will elect nothing but his Conservatives, whether they do something or not (recall the efforts of all 13 of his MPs before Mr. Harper's BHP Billiton flip-flop). How about the 2008 campaign where the strategy was to avoid any general, public, open meetings? Careful control. To me this describes sheep - nip their heels, keep them corralled. Instead of being rednecks, we may be better described as Saskatchewan sheeple.
Fact: During the last five years, Mr. Harper has travelled more often to Quebec City than the entire province of Saskatchewan.
Fact: Mr. Harper criticized his predecessors because they focused their travel on the larger centers like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Um-m-m, the three cities Mr. Harper has visited the most often are Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
Fact: This is the man who proudly acknowledged he had never set foot outside of Canada before 2006. Mr. Harper is now a seasoned world traveller who has been to every continent (except Antarctica, yet) with 78 overseas trips in less than five years (that is roughly one trip every three weeks.)
Fact: Did Conservative attack ads not claim Mr. Ignatieff was "just visiting" and that anyone who spent time outside of Canada was not Canadian?
Final fact: Mr. Harper's travels have all been on the taxpayer dime. Check out www.ipolitics.ca/harpersairmiles or http://geocommons.com/maps/46381 for an interactive map. See for yourself. Baa-aa-aa.
Robert Bandurka
Humboldt, SK
