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It is not easy for New Democrats to contend with the notion that populism can — and has — moved from the left to the right.

Dictionary-defined as “a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups”, New Democrats have long claimed exclusive proprietary rights to the word “populist.” In this country — and especially in Saskatchewan — the left views it as heresy for anyone to suggest that the very definition of populist applies to anyone other than someone on the left.

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The party of Tommy Douglas — former Co-operative Commonweatlh Federation Saskatchewan premier and federal NDP leader — who fashioned a political movement from the ragged despair of the Great Depression, could not be elitist. About the only notion New Democrats find more perturbing is conservatives who would take Douglas’s name in vain.

During the 1986 provincial election, Progressive Conservative premier Grant Devine cheekily suggested Douglas would be supporting the PCs if he were around for that campaign.