Highway 32, from travesty to legacy
By Sheri Monk
Badger News Media
October 28, 2009
The story begins in the mid-1940s when a long stretch of Highway No. 32 between Shackleton and Leader was paved – sort of. No one knows for sure who decided how the highway would be constructed, but that decision resulted in a 65-year struggle which will finally cease in the fall of 2010.
The root of the highway’s problem was a thin membrane surface – essentially, a dirt base with a very thin layer of asphalt on top. Pitted, potholed and perforated, the poorly-built highway more resembled a mine field than an important artery to several communities.
Highway No. 32 is indeed vital – it is the fastest route to a fully-appointed hospital and the shortest route from Swift Current to the Great Sandhills. And while the craters in the road never stopped growing, tourism and economic development certainly did. Even the ambulances avoid the highway like the plague itself.
But perhaps more interesting than the story of how the highway came to be is the story of how it came to be replaced.
In the summer of 2006, Leader resident and business owner Gord Stueck – and other community members – began to mail postcards to then – NDP minister of highways, Eldon Lautermilch. As the postcard campaign continued, Stueck was asked what tactic would be employed next – the natural solution was a naked calendar.
“I worked all summer on those guys. Finally on Thanksgiving weekend when it was colder than hell, I rounded up a bunch of the guys and we went out,” said Stueck.
The result – a calendar featuring 12 scantily-clad residents strategically positioned in deep potholes, asphalt crevices and water-filled holes capable of floating one model’s boat. The cold weather was a blessing in disguise as the daring models let it all hang out for the distant dream of a passable highway.
Saskatchewan Party MLA for Wayne Elhard was then a member of the official opposition and armed with 12 near-naked constituents in his hand, he marched into the legislature and introduced the calendar and the highway to the watching world.
“It came up in the legislature late in the afternoon and I started getting phone calls from the press,” said Stueck.
The phone calls never stopped and once the story was featured on CBC television, a media frenzy ensued. Interest poured in from all around the world and Stueck brought helpers in to man the phones at his pharmacy, taking media inquiries and calender orders. And thus, Highway No. 32 and its naked advocates made the front page of the Pakistani National Newspaper, were broadcast on CNN, featured in newspapers from Vancouver to Australia and were contacted by people from the Ukraine, Hong Kong, Singapore, Denmark and Darfur. The calenders were published by the Leader Lions Club and with nearly 3,000 copies now sold, $40,000 was made and invested right back into the community.
Despite the intense interest, the NDP government of the day did little more than chuckle at the joke – which only spurred Elhard on. In the fall of 2007, the NDP were handily tossed out of power by the Saskatchewan Party and Premier Brad Wall appointed Elhard as the new minister of highways.
“I had driven that road many times and I knew how bad it was and the Premier had driven it and he referred to that experience as similar to driving on the lunar landscape. He said to me one time when we were still in opposition, ‘If we ever win the election, we’re gonna fix that road.’
And so it was.
The highway is now in its second year of a three-year construction plan and this time, it will be built to the same standard as the Trans-Canada Highway.
While he no longer holds the highways portfolio, Elhard hopes the highway will create a sort of legacy resulting from his public service. Opening rural Saskatchewan for living and business was a top priority for the new government and the new highway is part of the government’s delivery promise in the Cypress Hills riding.
With completion anticipated for the fall of 2010, the calender crew is planning a street party to celebrate. Stueck and the biff and buff gang plan on thanking Elhard – with a calendar comeback. The trouble is, without all the potholes to hide in, there might be more left flapping in the breeze this time.
Reprinted with permission of Badger News Media.
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