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It’s never great to hear grumblings in your party, but it’s even less great to hear it a year out from an election.

Unfortunately for Saskatchewan New Democrats, it’s hardly the first time. This same grumbling could be heard for the past 12 years … and much longer.

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To this, one can hardly to fault currentleader Ryan Meili for the NDP’s dilemma… although it’s also rather hard to see how he’s alleviated the problem.

The problem has been an NDP that hasn’t been able to connect with a wide swath of Saskatchewan for decades.

Really, what is Meili offering rural Saskatchewan? Or for that matter, what does today’s NDP offer most of urban Saskatchewan that relates better to the Saskatchewan Party government’s anti-carbon tax, pro-pipeline lobby?

Again, it didn’t start with Ryan Meili. It’s a problem for which the party’s old guard is at least as much to blame.

The Saskatchewan New Democrat disconnection goes back 40 years in rural Saskatchewan where the Allan Blakeney government fought tooth and nail against the interests of the emerging, larger-scale agricultural producers uninterested in the old ways of government-run wheat boards and co-operative Wheat Pool elevators.