Article content

As if it wasn’t evident to provincial voters before this past week or so, the choice they will have a year from now between the NDP and the Saskatchewan Party could not be more stark.

Well, they are similar in that they are both already making a direct appeal to the hearts of voters. They are, however, taking very different routes.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Mandryk: Contrasts between NDP and Sask. Party increasingly evident Back to video

On one side of the legislature last week you had the Sask. Party providing about $1.9-billion worth of hype for its grand new bypass — the biggest highway project in Saskatchewan history. A project on time and on budget.

Well, the bypass is on time and on budget if you want to ignore initial needs assessments that would have limited the cost of this project to around $500 million. (And that might be a leap of faith, it we find in decades to come something wonky with the maintenance agreements that are currently untested by time.)

But last week’s opening was wrapped around the very people-oriented notion of preventing traffic fatalities stemming from the significant traffic flow problems accompanying the burgeoning populations of White City and Emerald Park east of Regina, rather than the NDP’s portrayal of the bypass as a vanity project all about the Sask. Party’s interest in leaving behind costly monuments.