Saskatchewan is evolving and I have a sneaking suspicion the rest of Canada ... nay, the rest of the world really doesn't know what to do about it. They don't know what to think about Saskatchewan once they find it on the map. They know we're humming. but really don't know how we're doing it.
To begin with, there is no real head office mentality in Saskatchewan. Oh sure, Bradley made the potash companies set some up in Saskatoon, but that's about it. They didn't like it, but if you're gonna make billions of dollars in Saskatchewan, you might want to be here once in awhile.
Viterra moved out and the rest of the supposed head offices are actually Crown corporations or provincial co-operatives. For that reason alone, those top dawgs have to settle here.
Having no head office mentality can be a good thing though.
Major oil companies pretty well ignore us from a head office perspective. Heck, even the non-major oil companies like to give us short shrift until we remind them where they make all their millions. So they all appear on occasion to dribble a few million back at us, and we smile and say thank you and ask them to go away again until we call.
Grain companies also like to ignore us. They know better, but can't help it. They must follow the pack. We have this farming thing pretty well down pat now. But no head offices. We only grow the stuff here.
Airlines prefer not to have to deal with Saskatchewan. We just awkward up their tidy schedules. And besides that, we don't change our time zones every six months. What's with that? Just another goofy Saskatchewan thing. Send the junk planes in and get out as quick as you can.
The train people have been ignoring Saskatchewan since 1890. Once they got the track laid through here in four days, they pretty well disappeared from the radar except when they stop long enough to pick up some wheat ... and now some oil to ship somewhere else. Pick up people? Forgedaboudit.
Bus lines don't think much of us either, that's why we have our own Crown bus business.
Financial institutions like us, but not enough to invest much effort in terms of bright lights, bright minds or big buildings. We're the farm system for them.
When it comes to manufacturing, well, the big dawgs are trying to figure us out too. You see, the aforementioned farmers know how to build things. We have all kinds of inventive, clever manufacturing going on here for short-line equipment. But no major players on the roster. The big stuff has to be built somewhere else. A steel mill? Ya godda be kiddin'. You mean they have one?
But it's not just business and industry that doesn't quite understand Saskatchewan, neither does the rest of Canada. They are bemused by our recent ascent to the top of the Confederation heap. They keep telling us that we can't be serious and we keep telling them to keep dreaming.
Alberta and Manitoba are jealous. Alberta hit the overcooked line a few years ago and Manitoba hasn't figured out what to do outside of Winnipeg for the last 80 years. Then there is B.C. Anyone want B.C? Bids are being accepted for Canada's wackiest province. Where does that province find its premiers?
Quebec doesn't care what happens in Saskatchewan or anywhere else. Ontario wishes it didn't care. The Atlantic provinces get us, but they're too far away to do anything about it and those airlines, buses and trains we talked about make it too difficult for us to really connect regularly.
So here we sit in our geographical glory ... basking in the sunshine of success, wondering what we should do next, after we've built that stadium in Regina.
Somehow I kinda wish the rest of them don't catch on to what's happening. It's sorta neat that we're doing this on our own agenda. A little recognition from Ottawa would be nice ... but we don't want too much because then they'd be unleashing their crazies on us, and we might not take too kindly to their intervention style.
So hey, what say we just sorta keep muddling along here with our 1.1 million people, creating waves on all fronts but not making a lot of noise. And if you don't get it, then we'll Corner Gas ya until ya do.
