Mea Culpa

With regard to the apology we issued to Saskatchewan Finance Minister Ron Gantefoer and Deputy Premier Ken Krawetz in our Dec. 18 edition for mis-identifying the latter as the former in a cut-line for a photo that ran in our Nov. 6 issue; I was the person who made the mistake. The weird thing is that I'd actually seen Gantefoer in person last March at an embargoed press conference that he conducted at the Legislature prior to presenting the first Sask Party budget. During that press conference, I was about 15 feet away from him for nearly an hour. So I had a pretty good idea what he looked like. The night we went to press with the Nov. 6 issue, I took a quick look at the file photo accompanying Paul Dechene's article on recently announced provincial tax cuts, said "That's Gantefoer", and wrote the caption: MERRY MAN: Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer's tax cut benefits the poor, but at what cost?

You know how Superman gets ridiculed for the idea that the only real disguise Clark Kent uses to hide his identity as the Man of Steel is a pair of glasses? As if Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and other intimates of his at the Daily Planet wouldn't notice the resemblance, people always joke. After my experience with Gantefoer and Krawetz I'm not so sure. If you see a picture of Krawetz without his glasses, it was pointed out to me by Stephen Whitworth, the difference between the two men is obvious. But in the photo we ran, Krawetz is wearing glasses. With them, it's like one of those "separated at birth" things. Krawetz has slightly darker hair than Gantefoer, and a semi-prominent forehead curl, but otherwise, it's like trying to tell Owen Wilson and Ellen Degeneres apart. Or Sarah Jessica Parker and Dee Snider. Or Warren McCall and Matt Damon.

Still, that's no excuse for the mistake I made. So I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to Mr. Gantefoer and Mr. Krawetz myself.