Dear Editor
It is no wonder the public gets annoyed with politicians who sometimes say the stupidest things, especially those things that are said to mislead.
Take Saskatchewan Party Highways Minister Jim Reiter trying to rev up Saskatchewan Party supporters at a meeting in North Battleford recently (as reported by the News-Optimist) who said the Saskatchewan Party government is spending a lot of provincial money on provincial highways because the former NDP government "for six years did almost nothing for highways in this province."
While that might make Saskatchewan Party members and candidates excited there are many long time residents of the Battlefords who know that statement to be completely false and misleading. For example, anyone who had driven between the city of North Battleford and the town of Battleford knows there were traffic tie-ups on the bridge because the NDP government was spending millions to upgrade and modernize the bridge infrastructure. Anyone who has driven to Lloydminster in the last 10 years has seen a lot of highway activity as the then NDP government was ensuring Highway 16 (the Yellowhead Highway) was twinned between the two cities. Rural residents know funding was made available to rural municipalities to strengthen the roads on which oil was and is being hauled.
Highways Minister Reiter also knows that even though the former NDP government had to deal with the highest per capita accumulated debt of any provincial government in Canada during its first years in office they still managed to spend millions of dollars annually on highway building and maintenance.
Reiter should know that any politician who knowingly misleads the public on one issue will also mislead them on other issues. It leads to mistrust and a lack of confidence and I'm sure that this is not the legacy he and his colleagues want to leave.
Elgin W. Wyatt
North Battleford
