HAPPY SASKATCHEWAN DAY!

           Happy Saskatchewan Day folks! Here’s hoping that you will have a great long weekend in good ol’ Sask-atch-ee-wan.

            This year’s Saskatchewan Day Civic Holiday is on August 4^th. I know it’s sad to see July go but when it leads into a holiday long weekend it might be a lot less tough to take. I’m very certain that there will be some appropriate way for everyone to celebrate our wonderful province.

            If the Land of the Living Skies can’t provide you with enough inspiration to celebrate this vast province of ours, and its many, many amenities, then I don’t know if anything will.

There are so many things that we can celebrate and be thankful for in this vast province like the beautiful sunsets, the varied geographical beauty, the historical sites, amazing parks, golf courses, beaches, lakes and rivers, mineral spas, ‘Riders, country fairs and city exhibitions…and on and on it goes.

I know Saskatchewan has kind of been the “little brother” of the country. You know, the other provinces had to let it tag along even though it couldn’t keep up for the longest time, and everything, and nobody really paid any attention to it and didn’t even know, or care, where it was half of the time and then the next thing you know it’s growing up and people are paying attention to it because it’s pretty attractive and it’s getting a little affluent and it’s not so easy to ignore now and like many things that take a while to blossom, once it does…wow!

I’ve got mixed feelings on the anonymity of the place, though. I almost liked the fact that we could fly under everybody’s radar and keep our humble small-town feel. I like the fact that it’s not so crowded and everywhere you go you know somebody who knows somebody. I don’t mind growth as long as it doesn’t take away from our personality.

If you aren’t able to think of a reason to celebrate Saskatchewan go to the websie- clubsask.com-and you’ll find their list of 100 reasons to Celebrate Saskatchewan. I cannot possibly reproduce all 100 here but I will list off some of my favourite things from their list:

• It is the easiest province in the country to draw.
• There are more doilies per capita than any other province.
• More hockey players than you can shake a stick at, among them, Olympic gold medallist in women's hockey, Hayley Wickenheiser, judged the best female hockey player in the world.
• More former hockey greats from Saskatchewan are- Gordie Howe (Floral), Wendell Clark (Kelvington), Bryan Trottier (Val Marie), Johnny Bower (Prince Albert) and Eddie Shore (Fort Qu'Appelle), Doug Wickenheiser (Regina), Theoren Fleury (Oxbow), Glen Hall (Humboldt) to name a few.
• There are 427 documented species of birds in Saskatchewan and it is one of the few places in North America where you can see magnificent whooping cranes relatively up close.
• 100,000 lakes (beat that, Minnesota!).
• The Saskatchewan Roughriders.
• Saskatchewan Roughriders fans.

According to the United Nations Human Development Index Saskatchewan is one of the best places in the world to live, but we already knew that, didn’t we? Now go out and celebrate your reason why! Have fun and stay safe.

“Saskatchewan is much like Texas…except it’s more friendly to the United States”-Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965).