The province has made the journey to a new reality, one with a positive attitude and optimism for the future, and "we're never going back," said broadcaster and author John Gormley, in his address to the Farmer Appreciation Night audience, hosted by the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 4 at McKenna Hall.
"There are few sectors that represent that more acutely than agriculture," the radio host said, pointing out this isn't new for this province, as early in its history Saskatchewan was the bright spot in the west.
Noting the optimism of Premier Walter Scott, who thought one day this province could have a population of 10 million, by 1911 Saskatchewan was the third largest province with a population of 430,000, behind only Ontario and Quebec. This position continued until the early 1940s, but this province was rocked hard by the Great Depression.
Saskatchewan is strong again now, and agriculture is a large part of that, as with 30,000 farms this province is one of the leading exporters in Canada.
At one time, Saskatchewan had 121,000 farms, and in the late 1920s and early 30s, there were 1.1 million horses - more than the province's population.
"Agriculture is still number one; only 30,000 farms are running, and it's still the engine of Saskatchewan's economy. You still make a contribution to this economy that is unparalleled by oil and potash," said Gormley.
Touching briefly on his new book, which is a collection of his newspaper columns, he noted there were trends in the themes he touched on, one of which was he kept talking about the attitude shift in Saskatchewan, which starting changing with the big oil boom in southeast Saskatchewan some seven or eight years ago.
"Only you will determine how you'll make these times better; so much of this comes back to attitude," Gormley told the audience, noting that for many years, Saskatchewanians were "hard-wired" into thinking, "nothing good was ever going to happen here."
But then change came, and the southeast was the prime location where that change could be seen with the activity in the Bakken zone spurring on new developments and growth.
One sign of the growth was immigration, which was also how Saskatchewan grew in its earliest years.
"We had some of the greatest immigration in the Commonwealth. Nobody brought in more numbers than we did. Today, it's been changing Saskatchewan culturally and politically, it's really quite exciting," he said.
Another change he's seen is that 10 or 15 years ago, 80 per cent of university grads did not stay in the province; today, however, 80 per cent of the graduates are staying here.
"That's a big change," said Gormley, pointing out it was partly made possible with the advent of the Internet, the 500-channel universe and cheaper air travel.
Another difference he's noted is there are many young people in the province, and many young children being born, which was not the case in 1998, and said this will help bring us closer to a population of 1.2 million, "and we're not going back."
"When I say back, I mean back to thinking we're not worthy of this growth; we're not ever going to go back there again," said Gormley. "This is a Saskatchewan that is doing well."
