Those people around the world who have struggled with the spelling of Saskatchewan are now in good company.

The Saskatchewan Party seems to be having problems with the name, too.

New Democrat MLAs were having a field day at the legislature Wednesday after the Saskatchewan Party ran a TV commercial featuring Opposition leader Brad Wall.

Part of the ad showed Wall with the word "Saskatchwan" displayed.

"Does the Saskatchewan Party even know how to spell Saskatchewan?" Regina NDP MLA Sandra Morin asked, as government members laughed. "Clearly, Mr. Speaker, they are simply not credible."

Premier Lorne Calvert got his digs in a few minutes later, referring to the ad and to what he said was a Saskatchewan Party news release that spelled government without the "n."

"Mr. Speaker, if you can't spell government and you can't spell Saskatchewan, but you want to be the government of Saskatchewan, you'd think you'd at least get one of them right," Calvert said to the delight of government members.

Wall, who later said the gaffe had slipped by proofreaders, noted that Calvert's name was once misspelled on a video shown at an NDP convention.

The difficulties people have had with the province's name have entered pop culture. The Scottish folk duo The Proclaimers once boasted in song about being able to pronounce Saskatchewan "without starting to stutter."

A search on the Google search engine for "Saskatchwan" turns up almost 44,000 results; "Saskachewan" – another common misspelling – turns up more than three million results.