I am afraid I am going to be a "bad Saskatchewanian" again and ruffle more feathers with more whining about life in general here.
You guessed it, my column is about the cold and snowy weather that has made everyone bat crazy.
I really do need to get the ranting out of my system about this miserable winter we have had so far. The snow arrived like a ton of bricks in October and despite all the groundhogs' optimistic predictions, it's still here. During the Christmas period temperatures were in the high -20 C range. In January we made it into -30s, and with the wind chill it was into the -40s.
Along with it have been too-frequent dumping of snow, not to mention bad road conditions, all of which your local politicians have heard an earful about.
It's at this point I find myself commenting about the Today in America video everyone is talking about. You know, the one featuring Terry Bradshaw doing the voiceover promoting the Battlefords as a place to live, work and do business.
It was pretty much what everyone expected, a nice professional production - except I had a minor issue with their portrayal of winter here.
At one point they showed pictures of happy-looking people snowboarding down a hill. I thought: this can't be right, because nobody I know enjoys winter here.
Folks in Alabama and Georgia might get the idea from Bradshaw that the Battlefords is a winter wonderland and book flights here to experience our fun winter.
Winter here is fun, all right, in a -30 sort of way.
Yes, there is plenty of tobogganing and snowmobiling.. In fact, I've done some of my own the past few weeks. Except it was in my own car, slipping and sliding through snowdrifts and rock-solid-icy roads on my way to work.
I even got stuck in a snow bank, and had trouble starting my car. Fun stuff.
My latest winter experiences have me asking - why do people live like this?
The more I think of it, the more I realize we have a serious issue here. We really do have a growing threat to the continued growth and prosperity of the province of Saskatchewan. That impediment is, unfortunately, Saskatchewan itself.
The reality is our winters are so bad they repel many people from coming here. We keep hearing stories about labour shortages because of troubles finding people to fill the jobs.
It's a serious issue. If we can't fill positions, it could slow to a crawl the growth our province experienced over the last while.
More to the point, I keep hearing of qualified people who would rather try their luck in warmer-weather locales like Vancouver, or in Ontario, even though it is tougher to find work there.
In our province, we get just a few months when it's sunny and warm and the roads aren't a total mess. Not coincidentally, it is also during that time when the Saskatchewan Roughriders season is on.
Things go downhill after that. First you are scraping ice off your car, then you need to plug your car in, then it's snow shovelling, which is fine until you have to shovel snow off your car, too. Then there's the hassle of always checking the Highways Hotline so you won't end up in the ditch.
Non-Saskatchewan people look at all this nonsense and say "I don't need this hassle! I'd rather put up with traffic and pollution instead!"
I worry if the national economy finally turns around Saskatchewan could be in trouble, because people who came here for employment reasons could say "take this weather and shove it!" As it stands, I'm convinced we would have no problems filling jobs if our winters weren't so terrible.
Despite this, the economy is still booming, our population is growing, and Saskatchewan expatriates keep moving back. Which begs my question: why do people put up with these conditions?
The answer is: they don't.
Most end up booking the cheapest sun vacation deals they can find to Mexico, the Caribbean, or to the southwest United States.
I keep going to these business luncheons where the audience gets fired up about how Saskatchewan has all these natural resources that are needed by folks in China and India.
No doubt, tourism officials in Mexico are holding luncheons of their own, saying things like this, in Spanish:
"We have something Saskatchewan doesn't have! We have warm temperatures! We have beaches! We have what the world wants and needs!"
You see, then, the issue. We sell our products to China and India, then waste the profits on trips to Mexico to escape the ice and snow. The winner in all this is Mexico.
As a final rant, I think we need to do more to make winter a little better for people here. One thing I noticed during my recent Las Vegas trip is they've got climate control down to an art form to deal with their own extreme heat during the summers.
Why we don't do more to create more enclosed spaces, walkways, underground parking, and so on for people to get relief from extreme cold boggles my mind.
We also need to do more to keep the traffic flowing in the cities to ensure Saskatchewan maintains the lifestyle and quality-of-life advantages we offer over everyone else.
No doubt, winter is part of life in Saskatchewan. I don't think it hurts to be honest about it, and it doesn't hurt to do something about it either.
As for Today in America viewers out there, you need to know the Battlefords really is the best place to live, work and play. Just be ready for the winter weather.
