Head Tale

When I first met Ryan, I made a special effort to take note of how his last name was pronounced (“Meili” rhymes with “smiley” – easy!) and I thought it was a silly thing but that his surname might be a slight barrier in his campaign.  As a relative unknown (at least when the campaign began) I thought there was a danger that people wouldn't be able to pronounce his name or would mis-spell it.  (Although to be fair, if the NDP can elect a Romanow, we can elect a Meili!) 

In retrospect, one of the funniest things in this campaign for me is seeing that most people spell Meili right and it's actually Dwain Lingenfelter's first name that causes people the most problems!  I can't find it now but there was an article in a Calgary paper (not one of the biggies – it looked like a community newspaper) that was about “Dwayne Lingenfelter” (who?)  Even among people who claim to be his biggeest supporters in CBC comments and on blog posts, I've seen “Dwaine“, “Dwayne“, “Duane” as well as the correct “Dwain”.   Wow – a mis-spelling even made it into the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan!

Save our province from the embarrassment of having a leader who's name no one can spell – vote Ryan Miley!