Prairies Bad Rap!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

I like to think that the prairies is the sinewy muscle that drives Canada forward...

...everywhere else is just the flabby love handles... :P

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.

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

i love it!

nice one vanni

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

my partner always says that the water reminds him of the prairies, the rolling and openness. he still misses the prairies.

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.

I lived in Winnipeg for a couple years and I thought it was a wonderful place.

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."

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

I don't know ...I heard lots of bad rap on the prairies!!!!!!!!! Ah...but most of you haven't been fortunate 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.

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.

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.

My neice goes to university in winnipeg, yikes! she will be finished next year! I remember when she was in diapers 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

Well, she should stick around then. We can always use a few nurses.

Well she is not a nurse rev, she will be a physio therapist. Which reminds me rev, when I attend her graduation next year, I expect to have a coffee with you and vanni.

Coffee, beer...whatever. We'll definitely get together though.

Everything you wrote in your post sums up the reasons why I'd love to live on the prairies... well, except maybe for the sleazy bars part! 8-)

For awhile it looked as though a move to Portage La Prairie was imminent, but the one particular thing fell through. Winnipeg strikes me as the perfect big little city (or little big city)... by which I mean a city big enough to have everything you need - along with far more culture than even some of the bigger cities - without that certain insanity that most cities get when they reach a certain size.

Another city that strikes me as similar in that particular regard - and also a highly desirable possibility for relocation, especially since we have a full keel sailboat - is Victoria.

The prairies have great allure for me because I love wide open spaces, great big storms, low-key non-trendy people... but of course on the other hand, the coast draws me back because I love the saltchuck, the green, the rain.

At this point, I only know one thing for sure, we are NOT going to remain in Kelowna.

Hey Haggis, if you are moving to victoria you better hurry up Front page of the newspaper this morning "average house price in Victoria hits 457,000 unbelievable. I think galaniomama is rich now...bout time she took me on trip. :P

Good for you Haggis Kelowna is the **** hole of the interior :P I lived there once never will again .The people there think their **** don't stink :P Well guess what it probably stinks worse :P

That's amazing... but the average is being driven up in part by the sizzling hot supersized mansion market, isn't it? The median price is lower, I suspect.

That true haggis, but even the basic plain jane house goes for 350,000. The further north you go the prices go down. You could always live on your sailboat a real hardship it would be to :P ....I am just jealous

I would dearly love to live on our sailboat, but since it is only 20 ft, it might be a bit cramped!

Winnipeg seems nice; I was only there for a few days in April so the weather wasn't the greatest. I've heard summer in the Peg is wonderful. I'd consider moving there, if the Jets came back that would solidify any decision.

I moved from Sudbury to Saskatoon over six years ago and it was the best move I ever made.

Everyone back "home" had it all wrong about life out here. I'm glad I didn't listen to them.