Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

This was originally posted at SaskVotes.com

There are some things you should not do when punctuating. One of those things is to put quotation marks around a sentence that someone did not say, and then attribute it to them. It seems like common sense to me. After criticizing the Sask Party TV ad for misspelling “Kamsack”, I’d have hoped that the NDP would step out of their glass spelling house after casting those stones.

However, the grammar/punctuation police are prowling through everything published by parties, hoping to find a nugget (or a turd) with which they can embarrass their opponents. It seems the NDP have had a rather large turd uncovered on their website. How could it be that no fewer than 4 NDP candidates said the exact same thing about joining Calvert’s campaign team?

Ryan in Wood River:

“I am proud to be a member of Premier Lorne Calvert’s NDP team that wants to make life better for all Saskatchewan people,” he said.

Sarah Connor in Kindersley:

“I am proud to be a member of Premier Lorne Calvert’s NDP team that wants to make life better for all Saskatchewan people,” she said.

And so on…

Punctuation isn’t always easy. I know I make mistakes, and will include too many commas in sentences that don’t need extra pauses. Some in my family have trouble with spelling, even with a spell checker. I think we need to ask what the intent of the NDP’s punctuation was when they wrote these candidate biographies. Did they use a template and forget to remove someone else’s mistake before publishing, or are they trying to convince voters that they are in touch with these candidates, and that these candidates provided that same quote to the website publisher.

There’s a difference between creepy pod people who speak in unison like the Borg, and simply staying on message. I think the NDP goofed, and will probably work to improve their candidate pages for next election, or the coming weeks.

Some might call the following an example of plagiarism, but I’m sure the original writer would have wanted the following Sask Party candidates to modify his/her original speech.

The Saskatchewan Party has the leader, the team and new ideas to ensure this constituency and our province reaches their full potential.

If elected as your MLA, I look forward to working for you and your families.

Phil Elliot

The Saskatchewan Party has the leader, team and new ideas that will ensure sustained economic growth in Saskatchewan, better public services, and that Saskatchewan people share in our province’s successes.

Delbert Kirsch

In conclusion, the Saskatchewan Party has the leader, team and plan to ensure Saskatchewan lives up to its full potential and that our people will share in our province’s successes.

Denis Allchurch

The Saskatchewan Party believes in the great potential of this province that we all love. We have an energetic and innovative leader, new ideas, and a dynamic team dedicated to ensuring our province reaches its full potential.

[...]

Yogi Huyghebaert

The Sask Party has such a dynamic and leading ideas team, that some know how to dynamically change a speech into their own.

I did spend about 5 minutes digging through the SaskLiberal.ca site. I didn’t find anything quite like that, except a few candidates with empty biographies aside from a contact email address and note about the page being approved by their respective campaign agents. Perhaps someone would like to dig deeper, and dig into other party sites as well for gaffs?

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It’s important I attribute the genesis of this story to Kate and her anonymous reader.