I got it a lot while traveling across the country.
Saying you were from Saskatchewan was the like the punchline to a joke you’d never know you were telling.
We were just that flat province located somewhere between oil territory and Ontario. We were that vague space “over there”.
We are flat. We are full of farmers. We are blue in political nature. We are a bunch of labels that no one bothers to investigate.
I’ve gotten this from everyone ranging from strangers on the streets of random cities to even my own BC relatives.
Besides seeing this first hand by people basically asking how I could live in a province like Saskatchewan, because it was so flat and all there was was farming, the Canada Day AbucusData Poll in 2014 (http://goo.gl/gVeS8h) sums up the rest of the country’s feelings towards Saskatchewan in 11 questions.
The poll was based on 1033 respondents’ answers to questions on line with a random sample of respondents forming a representative panel of Canadians.
“The data was weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, education level, and region,” explains the survey.
Now before we even look at the data, it should be understood that these are peoples’ perceptions of the country and not what is actually going on in the country.
This is most evident in questions like perceived highest and lowest income tax rates.
While Quebec and Ontario had the perceived highest rates of income with BC coming in third, Ontario and BC actually have the lowest.
“The results present a perception problem for both provinces,” says the analyst.
Some of the questions are not really quantifiable, like places the respondent would most want to visit or most beautiful province or more friendly province.
Saskatchewan excels at being the province ranked lowest on the beauty scale, with 6 per cent of Saskatchewan/Manitoba respondents actually rating us as having the most beautiful scenery while 72 per cent of these respondents said BC.
Granted you cannot really compete with the mountains.
When the question was flipped and respondents were asked which is the province with the least beautiful scenery, the top two respondents who answered Saskatchewan were 71 per cent of Albertan and 58 per cent of Saskatchewan/Manitoba respondents.
For the province that most respondents would like to visit on their next vacation, again, Saskatchewan did not break over the 1 per cent mark on any province other than the Saskatchewan/Manitoba respondents.
Now with the Saskatchewan/Manitoba voting category combined, it is difficult to say how many of those respondents were Manitobans who were showing some provincial pride by not voting for Saskatchewan, or voting against Saskatchewan, but looking at the numbers, there are still many Saskatchewan voters who do not see the beauty in their own province.
And another thing to remember with this survey is that we have some steep competition. BC, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, even some parts of Alberta, are gorgeous when it comes to landscapes and tourist attractions.
But that is the thing.
Saskatchewan gets overlooked when it comes to where people should go for summer vacations.
Even people who move here get quizzical looks from me about how they chose Saskatchewan over other places.
But especially while interviewing the Nova Scotia students after their tour around Saskatchewan, all of them said how beautiful our home is now that they have seen it.
The grass may be greener in other provinces, which is why we rank them higher in beauty, but the people I have talked to who actually come to give Saskatchewan a chance come to love it.
This is up to us to improve these negative Saskatchewan perceptions.
Let us show that Saskatchewan pride, not just in Saskatchewan but when we go out of province.
Walking around Halifax, it was no surprise to see a Roughrider hat or jersey.
I saw more Rider fans than any other CFL team in Nova Scotia, some who had no Saskatchewan ties whatsoever and most who were more than happy to talk Rider Pride.
These are proud Saskatchewan ambassadors.
Let us encourage people to actually come see it for themselves.
We always seem to be the one perpetuating the stereotype but let us start defending ourselves.
Let us defend the beauty that we do have in Saskatchewan.
Like some Horton High School kids said, it was different than Nova Scotia but we are beautiful in our own right.
Let us be proud of that.
