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Published: October 24th 2008
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There is something very cool sounding about the name Saskatchewan. This is one of the low profile provinces - sparsely populated, known for its extensive flat prairies on which vast quantities of wheat are grown, a growing oil and gas industry, and increasing mineral extraction, particularly uranium. The province even has a city called Uranium City.
On Canadian Thanksgiving, we jumped on the Greyhound from Edmonton to Saskatoon. Ah Saskatoon, the city of bridges and the Paris of the Prairies (as they call it). It is a beautiful small city of around 200,000 people situated around the South Saskatchewan River. We had a great few days exploring the city and its’ riverbanks. We stayed at the College Drive Lodge which had a nice panoramic view of the river and the university from the lounge room. It was here that the owner, Andres, told us that despite being in Canada for decades after emigrating from his native Venezuela, he still couldn’t get used to the -30 degree temperatures and howling winds that the Prairie winters serve up. It gets so bad he mused, that sometimes he has to walk backwards into the wind because it stings his face so much. That
Lok and the Saskatchewan Legislature
We both love a good Legislative building. was a story that we really didn’t need to hear with cold breath of winter quickly bearing down upon us.
The Prairie region of Canada has a strong Ukrainian influence due largely to a comprehensive immigration program that began in the late 1800’s. Canada was looking to populate the Prairies after the area had been opened up by the completion of the railroad, and promoted emigration throughout Europe. The Ukrainian immigrants who saw little opportunity in their homeland were attracted in part by an offer of 160 acres for $10 which is a tad better than the Australian Government’s current $21,000 first home owners grant offer. Ukrainians came in droves and convinced their families to come as well, despite the fact that the weather was harsh, the land wasn’t as fertile as expected and the fact that the land had to be laboriously cleared by hand before it could be farmed (a job largely performed by the women, while the men went off to earn some cashola to feed the family). As a result of this heritage, Saskatoon is home to the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, with one of the most obvious signs of the Ukrainian influence being the
Saskatchewan Grain Elevator
No town in the province is complete without one of these. food. Ukrainian food, including pierogies and cabbage rolls, are popular items on a lot of cafe and pub menus. Mmm, pierogies.
While in Saskatoon, the Canadian Election happened. You missed it? We’re not surprised. Only around 59% of eligible Canadians voted in an election that saw the Conservative Harper Government returned with a minority government, a similar result to what they had before the election. The loser in the election was the Canadian Liberal party and its leader Stephane Dion. The opposition party lost 19 seats, mainly on the back of their failed “green shift” carbon tax policy, and of course an untimely global economic crisis. For those that remember the Maxime Bernier affair, he was re-elected, even though his now ex-girlfriend happened to release her autobiography during the campaign. This reportedly airs all of the dirty laundry of their relationship. It’s comforting to think that despite the fact that he was forced to stand down as foreign Minister because of his cavorting with bikie chicks and view that it was okay to leave potentially damaging top secret national security files laying around unsecured, he was still deemed by the constituents of his Quebec riding to be the best candidate to represent their interests in Parliament (with over 62% of the popular vote. The second placed candidate got 14% of the votes). You’ve gotta love democracy.
From Saskatoon, we went to Regina, the provincial capital. We checked out the legislature building and went on the free tour whereby we learnt that Saskatchewan was the first province to introduce public health care. This idea quickly spread to the rest of the country with the Medicare Act being introduced in 1966. Canadians are very proud of their health care system and they seem to be very wary when they hear talk about private health care, private hospitals and paying for doctors visits. Regina in general was fairly uninspiring. The city doesn’t have the prettiness of Saskatoon and is a victim of expanding in the 1960’s - ugly architecture and not many trees. They do have Wascana Lake, a man-made lake and parklands area which was rather lovely and reminded us a little of Canberra.
After an 8 hour bus ride that saw us stop in at nearly every small town on the way, we have arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Apparently Winnipeg is the murder capital of Canada (by capita). It’s nice to know that Adelaide isn’t the only city trying to shake this unofficial accolade.
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