Saskatchewan turns 100, lights up sky and smiles
Saskatchewan turned 100 and thousands in the province came out to party on Sunday.
More than 100,000 firework effects were set off across the province, including an orange and green one created to look like the western red lily, the province’s official flower.
“Wonderful, fantastic, incredible,” exclaimed Carol Allen of Regina. “Only Saskatchewan could do that.”
Saskatchewan shares its birthday with Alberta. Both entered Confederation on Sept. 1, 1905, but Saskatchewan saved its centennial party for Sunday. That was the anniversary of when the documents were signed in Regina.
Mounted RCMP officers in their red serge joined in the celebrations as did First Nations dancers wearing ancestral costumes.
Singers Brad Johner, Colin James and Canadian Idol runner-up Theresa Sokyrka kept the crowds entertained throughout the day.
“It’s a very momentous occasion,” said Beth Teskey, 63. “We’ve kept the province going for the first hundred years and the prospects are good for the next hundred.”
Prime Minister Paul Martin kicked off the celebrations on Friday. He made appearances in Saskatoon, Regina and at the Flying Dust First Nation in the north.
Premier Lorne Calvert told crowds at the legislature about the values important to the province.
“We dream of a province where the values of co-operation and caring, optimism and hope are the foundation of an unbreakable social fabric,” Calvert said.
“Here, in the heartland of the nation, may we always be a people with heart.” Native son Brent Butt, star of television show Corner Gas, received a medal along with Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson.
Butt said he was impressed by Saskatchewan’s endurance and by its people.
“Anytime anything can last for 100 years that is something pretty special,” said Butt. “Especially for a province like Saskatchewan to be this big of a chunk of dirt and to have less than a million people living in it, you would think it would get swallowed up somehow.”
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