Prairies Bad Rap!

DasFX

Electoral Member
Dec 6, 2004
859
1
18
Whitby, Ontario
Do you folks on the Prairies ever feel you have a bad rap? I mean, there are endless jokes about Manitoba and Saskatchewan. People call it boring, folks in Ontario are often encouraged not to stop until they hit Calgary on the cross country drives.

I mean I've only been to Manitoba and only stayed in Winnipeg. I got engaged there. Jetsgo had a seat sale and I though I'd pop the question somewhere "different". Winnipeg ended up being a great place, it was April over the Easter holidays so it probably wasn't the best time to go. Driving from the airport, I was a little scared, was wondering what kind of place I brought us to? However downtown was nice, the folks is far better of a waterfront then we have in Toronto. I was pleasantly surprised. The only downpoint was the weather, it snowed, it was the coldest city in Canada that weekend, how lucky for me!

Anyhow, back to my point, everyone thinks there is nothing to do, and thinks the prairies are a waste of time. I often tell folks that I want to use my points to fly to Saskatchewan since I haven't been there. They laugh and call me stupid.

Anyhow, not sure if any of this makes sense. Would love to go this summer for the centennial, but I'm getting married and have to go to San Francisco and Hawaii instead.
 

Jo Canadian

Council Member
Mar 15, 2005
2,488
1
38
PEI...for now
I'd rather be in the prairie...more wilderness there. Although I find that there are jokes directed all over the country, each province/region seems to have a sterotype to pick on.

For one, I'm tired of being called a Newfie because my family's from Pei. Perhaps because of this I hear more Newf jokes than prairie jokes.
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
I don't worry about the jokes too much. The smugness from the west coast about the weather gets tedious at times, but what the hell?

People who haven't seen Manitoba and Saskatchewan are missing a great deal though. Winnipeg is a fantastic city. So are Regina and Saskatoon. And all of the small cities and towns in between too. You want a cool holiday. Come and visit the prairies. Don't even think about driving down the Trans Canada, take the gravel.
 

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
10,168
536
113
Regina, SK
DasFX said:
Do you folks on the Prairies ever feel you have a bad rap?

Sure, but that's okay. All it means is that the morons we don't want to deal with anyway don't stop here. People who take the time to look around and educate themselves a bit know better.

People call it boring...

Only boring people get bored.
 

DasFX

Electoral Member
Dec 6, 2004
859
1
18
Whitby, Ontario
Dexter Sinister said:
Only boring people get bored.

My thoughts exactly.

Just as Muslims are obligated to visit Mecca once in their life, I think Canadians should drive across the country and visit every province and territory once in their life. I think a lot of this infighting and judging would subside if we all visited each other and saw how the other lives.

I'd love to drive west and north, it is just that Canada is so freakin' big, who has four weeks holiday in a row?
 
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Haggis McBagpipe

Walks on Forum Water
Jun 11, 2004
5,085
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Victoria, B.C.
I love the prairies. I love the wide-open spaces, easy pace, friendly people, golden fields... I can't think of one thing I didn't like on my visit there. Well, except for Thompson, Manitoba.

I would live in Saskatchewan or Manitoba in a heartbeat... and 'heart' is the perfect word, for I suspect that those peculiar old Canadian habits of politeness, consideration for others, modesty, lack of love for the all-mighty dollar, etc., that seem to have gone by the wayside can still be found on the prairies, perhaps more than any other part of Canada except for Newfoundland and the Maritimes.
 

peapod

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 26, 2004
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pumpkin pie bungalow
Well I have been to the praires a few times. I had a friend that lived in wilkie that I went to visit once for two weeks. She lived on a farm, so we had alot of fun. The landscape is so different from how I grew up, it took me awhile to appreciate what I saw. I was not use to seeing such a big picture, my pictures were filled in with trees and mountains. There was a freedom to it, it had all the lonely qualitites that my own province had. A good lonely tho :p
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
I had a friend that lived in wilkie

You don't get much more prairie than that. The Regina Camera Club used to run a tour for foreign tourists who wanted to take pictures of the prairies...Wilkie was one of the stops on the tour.
 

Ten Packs

Council Member
Nov 21, 2004
1,505
5
38
Kamloops BC
Re: RE: Prairies Bad Rap!

Reverend Blair said:
I don't worry about the jokes too much. The smugness from the west coast about the weather gets tedious at times, but what the hell?

I'd just like to announce that it didn't snow here today.

You just kissed off your own argument, Rev - LMAO!!! I planted my flower boxes out at the RV yesterday.....



But seriously, being a Saskatchewan boy, I still remember going back to the farm on vacation with my folks. My aunt and uncle had their house and yard on top of the highest hill for miles and miles (all of a hundred feet or so), but I still remember sitting in a field and looking through binoculars for MILES AND MILES AND MILES..... some far, far-away plume of dust, where a farmer was disking his field or something. Pretty neat!

I am reminded of a quote by Prince Phillip, many years ago when he and Liz first visited Banff or Lake Louise: "It would be a lovely view, if there weren't so many mountains in the way."


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is a dandy place, No1. They've been doing a lot of work around the rivers and in the Exchange District too. It's even better than it was before
 

zenfisher

House Member
Sep 12, 2004
2,829
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Seattle
I don't know ...I heard lots of bad rap on the prairies!!!!!!!!! 8O :D :wink: :twisted: Ah...but most of you haven't been :wink: fortunate :wink: enough to hear the Rev sing.

You have to learn to appreciate where you are. That's when you begin to notice the really cool things around you.
 

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
10,168
536
113
Regina, SK
Re: RE: Prairies Bad Rap!

Haggis McBagpipe said:
I love the prairies. ...
I would live in Saskatchewan or Manitoba in a heartbeat... and 'heart' is the perfect word...

YO HAGGIS! Get yo' ass out here, there's no more sane and civilized place on the planet than the Canadian prairies. Canada's Maritimes are a close second, 'cause of the fabulous Celtic music you can find there, but distinctly second. We both get a lot of snow, but on the plains we don't get a meter of heavy wet stuff all at once, we might get 20 cm of dry powdery stuff you can clear off with a leaf blower... And it gets cold, sure, but you can dress for it.

I've lived in Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Alberta, for periods of a few years, and 30 years in Saskatoon and 13 years in Regina. Saskatchewan is the place I want to be, and if I had to make a second choice it'd be Manitoba, even though I've never lived there. Winnipeg is a fabulous city, the Interlake is wonderful, the drive up to Dauphin through Riding Mountain National Park is stunning...And all that I got to see because of the job I had, until I retired a month ago. Everything any sane person could want is within a few hundred kilometers of me. And most of it's within 5 kilometers, I could walk to it if I had to. The only scenery that's far away is mountains, every other kind of scenery is pretty close.

What do you want? Theatre, movies, dancing, lively night clubs, sleazy bars, strip clubs, heavily intellectual public lectures at a university, quiet coffee shops, a nice neighborhood to walk around in, fine bookstores, an excellent symphony orchestra, jazz clubs, folk music, good restaurants, fast food, an Imax theatre, art galleries, museums... all of that and more is within walking distance of where I live in Regina. Actually everything in Regina is within walking distance of where I live... It's the best of both worlds, a rural city.
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
Strip clubs, Dex? Did they change their "No titties and beer in the same room" law?

Other than that, Regina does have everything you could possibly want though.
 

peapod

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 26, 2004
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My neice goes to university in winnipeg, yikes! she will be finished next year! I remember when she was in diapers :lol: :lol: She was born and raised on the island, and except for a surfing trip to Australia, she has not really been anywhere else, the peg has grown on her, she really likes it 8)