In 2005, in the lobby of Place Riel at the University of Saskatchewan, an ad on a trash can for a local clothing store bore the text "You'll need something to wear in Calgary." The assumption was that nobody actually in the university wanted to stay in province, and everyone would be running off to Alberta the moment the opportunity arose. This particular business wanted to catch people on the way out, but did not expect that anyone would stick around. The message was that students in this province had a bright and success filled future, somewhere else.
The rush to leave has ended, the population is growing, and the province is becoming an economic force that it has never actually been before. There are any number of reasons why this is taking place, from a newfound willingness to embrace resources to some high profile investments. Still, it makes a great deal of sense that it is, as Brad Wall has suggested, a province-wide shift in the way we view ourselves and the province's potential.
Think of it for a second. Two short years ago, businesses assumed that people did not want to be in the province long term. The clothing store in Saskatoon did not try to get repeat customers, it tried to get customers on their way out the door. It was not the only one, in fact, and a lot of people assumed that anyone young would be long gone by their next purchase. One can tell the province is low when even the people who own businesses here don't expect you to stay.
In five years people are no longer on the rush out, which is not something a single person or a government change can accomplish. It had to be a complete shift in the way people regard Saskatchewan - from a place to escape to a place where you actually want to live, a switch from being hopeless about what the province can do to actually wanting to have some impact in its future. Now, we don't need something to wear in Calgary.
