Kate McMillan of the well-known Canadian blog ‘Small Dead Animals’ has written a fascinating piece about the upcoming elections in her home province, Sasketchewan. In it she explains how huge economic potential can be throttled by a decade old psychosis:

While it seems cliche to mention it some 70 years later, the psychology behind what has been called Saskatchewan’s “politics of fear and envy” still traces its origins to the dustbowl depression of the 1930’s and the profound psychic impact it had on the province and its politics. It was in the dustbowl era that the predecessor to the NDP, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) was born. The CCF pledged that they would not “rest content until it has eradicated capitalism and put into operation the full programme of socialized planning,” a program that has adherents in the province and some would argue – in the NDP government – to this day.

The consensus is that Sasketchewan has the natural resource base to rival Canada’s economic wunderkind Alberta. On November 7 we will know if it can be unlocked at which point the dustbowl may finally be put there where it belongs, in history books.