Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...
in
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
, bordered on the west by
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
, on the north by the
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
, on the east by
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
, to the northeast by
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...
, and on the south by the
U.S. states of
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
and
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...
. Saskatchewan and Alberta are the only
landlocked
A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's largest ...
provinces of Canada. In 2022, Saskatchewan's population was estimated at 1,205,119.
Nearly 10% of Saskatchewan’s total area of is fresh water, mostly rivers, reservoirs and
lakes
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
.
Residents primarily live in the southern prairie half of the province, while the northern half is mostly forested and sparsely populated. Roughly half live in the province's largest city
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
or the provincial capital
Regina. Other notable cities include
Prince Albert,
Moose Jaw
Moose Jaw is the fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javian ...
,
Yorkton
Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about 450 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg and 300 kilometres south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province.
As of 2017 the census population of th ...
,
Swift Current
Swift Current is the fifth largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is situated along the Trans Canada Highway west of Moose Jaw, and east of Medicine Hat, Alberta. Swift Current grew 6.8% between 2011 and 2016, ending up at ...
,
North Battleford,
Melfort, and the border city
Lloydminster
Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administrati ...
.
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
is the primary language of the province, with 82.4% of Saskatchewanians speaking English as their
first language
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother to ...
.
Saskatchewan has been inhabited for thousands of years by
indigenous groups. Europeans first explored the area in 1690 and first settled in the area in 1774. It became a province in 1905, carved out from the vast
North-West Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
, which had until then included most of the
Canadian Prairies
The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...
. In the early 20th century, the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian social democracy; North America's
first social-democratic government was
elected in 1944. The province's economy is based on
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...
,
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...
, and
energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...
.
Saskatchewan is presently governed by
premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
Scott Moe, a member of the
Saskatchewan Party
The Saskatchewan Party is a centre-right political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Since 2007, it has been the province's governing party; both the party and the province are currently led by Premier Scott Moe. The party was est ...
which has been in power since 2007.
In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed a historic land claim agreement with
First Nations in Saskatchewan
First Nations in Saskatchewan constitute many Native Canadian band governments. First Nations ethnicities in the province include the Cree, Assiniboine, Saulteaux, Lakota, Dene and Dakota. Historically, the Atsina and Blackfoot could also be ...
.
The First Nations received compensation which they could use to buy land on the open market for the bands. They have acquired about , new reserve lands under this process. Some First Nations have used their settlement to invest in urban areas, including
Regina and
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
.
["Treaty Land Entitlement – The English River Story, Saskatchewan"](_blank)
, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, accessed November 25, 2011
Etymology
The name of the province is derived from the
Saskatchewan River
The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...
. The river is known as ("swift flowing river") in the
Cree language
Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais– Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is th ...
.
Henday's spelling was ''Keiskatchewan'', with the modern rendering, ''Saskatchewan'', being officially adopted in 1882 when a portion of the present-day province was designated a
provisional district of the North-West Territories
The vastness of Canada's Northwest Territories (spelled 'North-West Territories' from 1870 to 1906) meant that for much of its history it was divided into several districts for ease of administration. The number and size of these territorial dist ...
.
Geography
![Saskatchewan Topographic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Saskatchewan_Topographic.png)
Saskatchewan is the only province without a
natural border
A natural border is a border between states or their subdivisions which is concomitant with natural formations such as rivers or mountain ranges. The "doctrine of natural boundaries" developed in Western culture in the 18th century being based u ...
. As its borders largely follow the geographic coordinates of
longitude
Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...
and
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...
, the province is roughly a
quadrilateral
In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''latus'', meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, ...
, or a shape with four sides. However, the southern border on the
49th parallel and the northern border on the
60th parallel appear curved on globes and many maps. Additionally, the eastern boundary of the province is partially crooked rather than following a line of longitude, as
correction line
The Dominion Land Survey (DLS; french: links=no, arpentage des terres fédérales, ATF) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km2) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout ...
s were devised by surveyors prior to the
homestead program (1880–1928).
Saskatchewan is part of the Western Provinces and is bounded on the west by
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
, on the north by the
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
, on the north-east by
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...
, on the east by
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
, and on the south by the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
s of
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
and
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...
. Saskatchewan has the distinction of being the only Canadian province for which no borders correspond to physical geographic features (i.e. they are all parallels and meridians). Along with Alberta, Saskatchewan is one of only two
land-locked
A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's large ...
provinces.
The overwhelming majority of Saskatchewan's population is located in the southern third of the province, south of the
53rd parallel.
Saskatchewan contains two major natural regions: the
Boreal Forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...
in the north and the
Prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
s in the south. They are separated by an
aspen parkland
Aspen parkland refers to a very large area of transitional biome between prairie and boreal forest in two sections, namely the Peace River Country of northwestern Alberta crossing the border into British Columbia, and a much larger area stretchi ...
transition zone near the North Saskatchewan River on the western side of the province, and near to south of the
Saskatchewan River
The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...
on the eastern side. Northern Saskatchewan is mostly covered by forest except for the
Lake Athabasca Sand Dunes
The Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park was created to protect the Athabasca sand dunes, a unique boreal shield ecosystem located in the far-north Northern Saskatchewan Administration District. The Athabasca sand dunes are the most northerly ...
, the largest active sand dunes in the world north of 58°, and adjacent to the southern shore of
Lake Athabasca
Lake Athabasca (; French: ''lac Athabasca''; from Woods Cree: , "herethere are plants one after another") is located in the north-west corner of Saskatchewan and the north-east corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N in Canada. The lake ...
. Southern Saskatchewan contains another area with sand dunes known as the "Great Sand Hills" covering over . The
Cypress Hills, located in the southwestern corner of Saskatchewan and Killdeer Badlands (
Grasslands National Park
Grasslands National Park (French: ') is a Canadian national park located near the village of Val Marie, Saskatchewan, and one of 44 national parks and park reserves in Canada's national park system (though one of only two in Saskatchewan it ...
), are areas of the province that were unglaciated during the last glaciation period, the
Wisconsin glaciation
The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cord ...
.
The province's highest point, at , is located in the
Cypress Hills less than 2 km from the provincial boundary with Alberta. The lowest point is the shore of
Lake Athabasca
Lake Athabasca (; French: ''lac Athabasca''; from Woods Cree: , "herethere are plants one after another") is located in the north-west corner of Saskatchewan and the north-east corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N in Canada. The lake ...
, at . The province has 14 major
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
s made up of various rivers and watersheds draining into the
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
,
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
and the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
.
Climate
![Saskatchewan Köppen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Saskatchewan_K%C3%B6ppen.svg)
Saskatchewan receives more hours of
sunshine than any other Canadian province. The province lies far from any significant body of water. This fact, combined with its northerly latitude, gives it a warm summer, corresponding to its
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...
(
Köppen type ''Dfb'') in the central and most of the eastern parts of the province, as well as the
Cypress Hills; drying off to a
semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
steppe climate (Köppen type ''BSk'') in the southwestern part of the province. Drought can affect agricultural areas during long periods with little or no precipitation at all. The northern parts of Saskatchewan – from about
La Ronge
La Ronge is a northern town in the boreal forest of central Saskatchewan, Canada. Its location is approximately north of Prince Albert where Highway 2 becomes Highway 102. La Ronge lies on the western shore of Lac la Ronge, is adjacent ...
northward – have a
subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, g ...
(Köppen ''Dfc'') with a shorter summer season. Summers can get very hot, sometimes above during the day, and with humidity decreasing from northeast to southwest. Warm southern winds blow from the plains and intermontane regions of the Western United States during much of July and August, very cool or hot but changeable air masses often occur during spring and in September. Winters are usually bitterly cold, with frequent Arctic air descending from the north. with high temperatures not breaking for weeks at a time. Warm
chinook winds
Chinook winds, or simply Chinooks, are two types of prevailing warm, generally westerly winds in western North America: Coastal Chinooks and interior Chinooks. The coastal Chinooks are persistent seasonal, wet, southwesterly winds blowing in from ...
often blow from the west, bringing periods of mild weather. Annual precipitation averages 30 to 45 centimetres (12 to 18 inches) across the province, with the bulk of rain falling in June, July, and August.
Saskatchewan is one of the most
tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...
-active parts of
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
, averaging roughly 12 to 18 tornadoes per year, some violent. In 2012, 33 tornadoes were reported in the province. The
Regina Cyclone
The Regina Cyclone, or Regina tornado of 1912, was a tornado that devastated the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, on Sunday, June 30, 1912. It remains the deadliest tornado in Canadian history with a total of 28 fatalities and about 300 p ...
took place in June 1912 when 28 people died in an F4
Fujita scale
The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is deter ...
tornado. Severe and non-severe thunderstorm events occur in Saskatchewan, usually from early spring to late summer. Hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes are a common occurrence.
The hottest temperature ever recorded in Saskatchewan was when the temperature rose to in
Midale
Midale () is a town in the rural municipality of Cymri No. 36, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located on Highway 39, midway between the cities of Weyburn and Estevan. The population of Midale is 562. It is south-east of ...
and
Yellow Grass
Yellow Grass is a town in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located in the Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, approximately 25 km northwest of Weyburn, at the junction of provincial Highway 39 and 621. The town is located on the Canadia ...
. The coldest ever recorded in the province was in
Prince Albert, which is north of Saskatoon.
Climate change
The effects of
climate change in Saskatchewan
The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province. There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan's boreal forests (as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces) that is linked by resea ...
are now being observed in parts of the province. There is evidence of reduction of
biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bio ...
in Saskatchewan's
boreal forests
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...
(as with those of other
Canadian prairie provinces) is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress, stemming from
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, most likely caused by
greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and ...
. While studies, as early as 1988 (Williams, et al., 1988) have shown climate change will affect agriculture, whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of
cultivars
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
, or crops, is less clear.
Resiliency
Resilience, resilient, resiliency, or ''variation'', may refer to:
Science
Ecology
* Ecological resilience, the capacity of an ecosystem to recover from perturbations
** Climate resilience, the ability of systems to recover from climate change
* ...
of
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...
s may decline with large changes in temperature. The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce
carbon emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and l ...
, "The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan", in June 2007.
History
![Henry Kelsey sees the buffalo on the western plains](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Henry_Kelsey_sees_the_buffalo_on_the_western_plains.jpg)
Saskatchewan has been populated by various
indigenous peoples of North America
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...
, including members of the
Sarcee,
Niitsitapi,
Atsina,
Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations.
In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...
,
Saulteaux
The Saulteaux (pronounced , or in imitation of the French pronunciation , also written Salteaux, Saulteau and other variants), otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan ...
,
Assiniboine
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...
(Nakoda),
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
and
Sioux
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota: /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and ...
. The first known European to enter Saskatchewan was
Henry Kelsey from England in 1690, who travelled up the Saskatchewan River in hopes of trading fur with the region's indigenous peoples.
Fort La Jonquière
Fort La Jonquière was a French fort built along the Saskatchewan River in the spring of 1751. It was purported to have been the furthest west outpost of New France. The fort was named after the Governor General of New France at the time, Jacque ...
and
Fort de la Corne were first established in 1751 and 1753 by early French explorers and traders. The first permanent European settlement was a
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
post at
Cumberland House
Cumberland House was a mansion on the south side of Pall Mall in London, England. It was built in the 1760s by Matthew Brettingham for Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany and was originally called York House. The Duke of York died in 176 ...
, founded in 1774 by
Samuel Hearne
Samuel Hearne (February 1745 – November 1792) was an English explorer, fur-trader, author, and naturalist. He was the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, actually Coronation Gulf, via the C ...
. The southern part of the province was part of
Spanish Louisiana
Spanish Louisiana ( es, link=no, la Luisiana) was a governorate and administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1762 to 1801 that consisted of a vast territory in the center of North America encompassing the western basin of t ...
from 1762 until 1802.
19th century
In 1803, the
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or ap ...
transferred from France to the United States part of what is now
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...
and Saskatchewan. In 1818, the U.S. ceded the area to Britain. Most of what is now Saskatchewan was part of
Rupert's Land and controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, which claimed rights to all watersheds flowing into
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
, including the
Saskatchewan River
The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...
,
Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
,
Assiniboine
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...
,
Souris, and
Qu'Appelle River
The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near th ...
systems.
In the late 1850s and early 1860s, scientific expeditions led by
John Palliser
John Palliser (29 January 1817 – 18 August 1887) was an Irish-born geographer and explorer. Following his service in the Waterford Militia and hunting excursions to the North American prairies, he led the British North American Explor ...
and
Henry Youle Hind
Henry Youle Hind (1 June 1823 – 8 August 1908) was a Canadian geologist and explorer. He was born in Nottingham, England, and immigrated to Canada, settling in Toronto, Ontario, in 1846. Hind led expeditions to explore the Canadian prairies i ...
explored the prairie region of the province.
In 1870, Canada acquired the Hudson's Bay Company's territories and formed the
North-West Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
to administer the vast territory between
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...
and
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
. The Crown also entered into a series of
numbered treaties
The Numbered Treaties (or Post-Confederation Treaties) are a series of eleven treaties signed between the First Nations, one of three groups of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the reigning monarch of Canada (Victoria, Edward VII or George V) ...
with the indigenous peoples of the area, which serve as the basis of the relationship between
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
, as they are called today, and the Crown. Since the late twentieth century, land losses and inequities as a result of those treaties have been subject to negotiation for settlement between the
First Nations in Saskatchewan
First Nations in Saskatchewan constitute many Native Canadian band governments. First Nations ethnicities in the province include the Cree, Assiniboine, Saulteaux, Lakota, Dene and Dakota. Historically, the Atsina and Blackfoot could also be ...
and the federal government, in collaboration with provincial governments.
In 1876, following their defeat of United States Army forces at the
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, No ...
in
Montana Territory
The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted as the 41st state in the Union as the state of Montana.
Original boundaries
...
in the United States, the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
Chief
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull ( lkt, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock ...
led several thousand of his people to
Wood Mountain. Survivors and descendants founded Wood Mountain Reserve in 1914.
The North-West Mounted Police set up several posts and forts across Saskatchewan, including
Fort Walsh
Fort Walsh is a National Historic Site of Canada that was a North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) fort and the site of the Cypress Hills Massacre. Administered by Parks Canada, it forms a constituent part of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park.
The fo ...
in the Cypress Hills, and
Wood Mountain Post in south-central Saskatchewan near the United States border.
![Battle of Batoche Print by Seargent Grundy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Battle_of_Batoche_Print_by_Seargent_Grundy.jpg)
Many
Métis
The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United State ...
people, who had not been signatories to a treaty, had moved to the
Southbranch Settlement and
Prince Albert district north of present-day Saskatoon following the
Red River Rebellion
The Red River Rebellion (french: Rébellion de la rivière Rouge), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by ...
in Manitoba in 1870. In the early 1880s, the Canadian government refused to hear the Métis' grievances, which stemmed from land-use issues. Finally, in 1885, the Métis, led by
Louis Riel
Louis Riel (; ; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first ...
, staged the
North-West Rebellion
The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a Resistance movement, resistance by the Métis people (Canada), Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Natio ...
and declared a provisional government. They were defeated by a Canadian militia brought to the
Canadian prairies
The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...
by the new Canadian Pacific Railway. Riel, who surrendered and was convicted of treason in a packed Regina courtroom, was hanged on November 16, 1885. Since then, the government has recognized the Métis as an aboriginal people with status rights and provided them with various benefits.
European settlements
The national policy set by the federal government, the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...
, the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
and associated land companies encouraged immigration. The ''
Dominion Lands Act
The ''Dominion Lands Act'' (long title: ''An Act Respecting the Public Lands of the Dominion'') was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of the Canadian Prairies and to help prevent the area being claimed by the United Sta ...
'' of 1872 permitted settlers to acquire one-quarter of a square mile of land to homestead and offered an additional quarter upon establishing a homestead. In 1874, the North-West Mounted Police began providing police services. In 1876, the ''North-West Territories Act'' provided for appointment, by the Ottawa, of a Lieutenant Governor and a Council to assist him.
![Ad to attract Immigrants to wheat belt in 1898](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Ad_to_attract_Immigrants_to_wheat_belt_in_1898.jpg)
Highly optimistic advertising campaigns promoted the benefits of prairie living. Potential immigrants read leaflets that described Canada as a favourable place to live and downplayed the need for agricultural expertise. Ads in ''The Nor'-West Farmer'' by the Commissioner of Immigration implied that western land was blessed with water, wood, gold, silver, iron, copper, and cheap coal for fuel, all of which were readily at hand. The reality was far harsher, especially for the first arrivals who lived in
sod house
The sod house or soddy was an often used alternative to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the Great Plains of Canada and the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s. Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fen ...
s. However eastern money poured in and by 1913, long term mortgage loans to Saskatchewan farmers had reached $65 million.
The dominant groups comprised British settlers from eastern Canada and Britain, who comprised about half of the population during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They played the leading role in establishing the basic institutions of plains society, economy and government.
20th century
Gender roles were sharply defined. Men were primarily responsible for breaking the land; planting and harvesting; building the house; buying, operating and repairing machinery; and handling finances. At first, there were many single men on the prairie, or husbands whose wives were still back east, but they had a hard time. They realized the need for a wife. In 1901, there were 19,200 families, but this surged to 150,300 families only 15 years later. Wives played a central role in settlement of the prairie region. Their labour, skills, and ability to adapt to the harsh environment proved decisive in meeting the challenges. They prepared bannock, beans and bacon, mended clothes, raised children, cleaned, tended the garden, helped at harvest time and nursed everyone back to health. While prevailing patriarchal attitudes, legislation, and economic principles obscured women's contributions, the flexibility exhibited by farm women in performing productive and nonproductive labour was critical to the survival of family farms, and thus to the success of the wheat economy.
![Banquet celebrating new province of Saskatchewan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Banquet_celebrating_new_province_of_Saskatchewan.jpg)
On September 1, 1905, Saskatchewan became a province, with inauguration day held on September 4. Its political leaders at the time proclaimed its destiny was to become Canada's most powerful province. Saskatchewan embarked on an ambitious province-building program based on its Anglo-Canadian culture and wheat production for the export market. Population quintupled from 91,000 in 1901 to 492,000 in 1911, thanks to heavy immigration of farmers from Ukraine, U.S., Germany and Scandinavia. Efforts were made to assimilate the newcomers to British Canadian culture and values.
In the 1905 provincial elections, Liberals won 16 of 25 seats in Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan government bought out Bell Telephone Company in 1909, with the government owning the long-distance lines and left local service to small companies organized at the municipal level. Premier Walter Scott preferred government assistance to outright ownership because he thought enterprises worked better if citizens had a stake in running them; he set up the Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator Company in 1911. Despite pressure from farm groups for direct government involvement in the grain handling business, the Scott government opted to loan money to a farmer-owned elevator company. Saskatchewan in 1909 provided bond guarantees to railway companies for the construction of branch lines, alleviating the concerns of farmers who had trouble getting their wheat to market by wagon. The
Saskatchewan Grain Growers Association
The Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association (SGGA) was a farmer's association that was active in Saskatchewan, Canada in the early 20th century.
It was a successor to the Territorial Grain Growers' Association, and was formed in 1906 after Saskatc ...
, was the dominant political force in the province until the 1920s; it had close ties with the governing Liberal party. In 1913, the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association was established with three goals: to watch over legislation; to forward the interests of the stock growers in every honourable and legitimate way; and to suggest to parliament legislation to meet changing conditions and requirements.
![Maury Geography 073A Saskatchewan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Maury_Geography_073A_Saskatchewan.jpg)
Immigration peaked in 1910, and in spite of the initial difficulties of frontier life – distance from towns, sod homes, and backbreaking labour – new settlers established a European-Canadian style of prosperous
agrarian society
An agrarian society, or agricultural society, is any community whose economy is based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland. Another way to define an agrarian society is by seeing how much of a nation's total production is in agriculture ...
. The long-term prosperity of the province depended on the world price of grain, which headed steadily upward from the 1880s to 1920, then plunged down. Wheat output was increased by new strains, such as the "
Marquis wheat" strain which matured 8 days sooner and yielded 7 more bushels per acre (0.72 m
3/ha) than the previous standard, "
Red Fife
Red Fife (Triticum aestivum) wheat is a Canadian landrace descendent of Western Ukrainian (Galicia) wheat; it’s old local Galician name being “Halychanka”. It is a hard, bread wheat with straws of 0.9 to 1.5 metres tall.
From the mid-1800s ...
". The national output of wheat soared from in 1896, to in 1901, reaching by 1921.
Urban reform movements in Regina were based on support from business and professional groups. City planning, reform of local government, and municipal ownership of utilities were more widely supported by these two groups, often through such organizations as the Board of Trade. Church-related and other altruistic organizations generally supported social welfare and housing reforms; these groups were generally less successful in getting their own reforms enacted.
The province responded to the First World War in 1914 with patriotic enthusiasm and enjoyed the resultant economic boom for farms and cities alike. Emotional and intellectual support for the war emerged from the politics of Canadian national identity, the rural myth, and social gospel progressivism The Church of England was especially supportive. However, there was strong hostility toward German-Canadian farmers. Recent Ukrainian immigrants were enemy aliens because of their citizenship in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A small fraction were
taken to internment camps. Most of the internees were unskilled unemployed labourers who were imprisoned "because they were destitute, not because they were disloyal".
![Hawker-Eaton-InternmentCamp](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Hawker-Eaton-InternmentCamp.jpg)
The price of wheat tripled and acreage seeded doubled. The wartime spirit of sacrifice intensified social reform movements that had predated the war and now came to fruition. Saskatchewan gave women the right to vote in 1916 and at the end of 1916 passed a referendum to prohibit the sale of alcohol.
In the late 1920s, the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...
, imported from the United States and Ontario, gained brief popularity in nativist circles in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The Klan, briefly allied with the provincial Conservative party because of their mutual dislike for Premier
James G. "Jimmy" Gardiner and his Liberals (who ferociously fought the Klan), enjoyed about two years of prominence. It declined and disappeared, subject to widespread political and media opposition, plus internal scandals involving the use of the organization's funds.
Post–Second World War
In 1970, the first annual
Canadian Western Agribition
Canadian Western Agribition, otherwise known as simply Agribition, is an annual agricultural trade show held at Evraz Place in Regina, Saskatchewan, typically held during the last week of November.
The show won the 2013 and 2015 Saskatchewan Tour ...
was held in Regina. This farm-industry trade show, with its strong emphasis on livestock, is rated as one of the five top livestock shows in North America, along with those in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
,
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
and
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
.
![Queen and burmese](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Queen_and_burmese.jpg)
The province celebrated the 75th anniversary of its establishment in 1980, with
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth  ...
, presiding over the official ceremonies. In 2005, 25 years later, her sister, Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...
, attended the events held to mark Saskatchewan's centennial.
Since the late 20th century, First Nations have become more politically active in seeking justice for past inequities, especially related to the taking of indigenous lands by various governments. The federal and provincial governments have negotiated on numerous land claims, and developed a program of "Treaty Land Entitlement", enabling First Nations to buy land to be taken into reserves with money from settlements of claims.
"In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed an historic land claim agreement with Saskatchewan First Nations. Under the Agreement, the First Nations received money to buy land on the open market. As a result, about 761,000 acres have been turned into reserve land and many First Nations continue to invest their settlement dollars in urban areas", including Saskatoon. The money from such settlements has enabled First Nations to invest in businesses and other economic infrastructure.
21st century
In June 2021, a graveyard containing the remains of 751 unidentified people was found at the former
Marieval Indian residential school
The Marieval Indian Residential School was part of the Canadian Indian residential school system. Located on the Cowessess 73 reserve in Marieval, Saskatchewan, it operated from 1898 to 1997. It was located in Qu'Appelle Valley, east of Croo ...
, part of the
Canadian Indian residential school system
In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school s ...
, the most found in Canada to date.
Demographics
Ethnicity
According to the
Canada 2011 Census, the largest
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
in Saskatchewan is
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
(28.6%), followed by English (24.9%),
Scottish (18.9%), Canadian (18.8%),
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
(15.5%),
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
(13.5%),
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
(
Fransaskois) (12.2%),
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
(12.1%),
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
(6.9%), and
Polish (5.8%).
Language
As of the
2021 Canadian Census
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sl ...
, the ten most spoken languages in the province included English (1,094,785 or 99.24%), French (52,065 or 4.72%), Tagalog (36,125 or 3.27%), Cree (24,850 or 2.25%), Hindi (15,745 or 1.43%), Punjabi (13,310 or 1.21%), German (11,815 or 1.07%), Mandarin (11,590 or 1.05%), Spanish (11,185 or 1.01%), and Ukrainian (10,795 or 0.98%).
The question on knowledge of languages allows for multiple responses.
Religion
According to the
2021 census, religious groups in Saskatchewan included:
*
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
(621,250 persons or 56.3%)
*
Irreligion
Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and ...
(403,960 persons or 36.6%)
*
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
(25,455 persons or 2.3%)
*
Indigenous Spirituality (16,300 persons or 1.5%)
*
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
(14,150 persons or 1.3%)
*
Sikhism
Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...
(9,040 persons or 0.8%)
*
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
(4,410 persons or 0.4%)
*
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
(1,105 persons or 0.1%)
*Other (7,540 persons or 0.7%)
Economy
Historically, Saskatchewan's economy was primarily associated with
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...
, with wheat being the precious symbol on the province's flag. Increasing diversification has resulted in agriculture,
forestry
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...
,
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
, and
hunting
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
only making up 8.9% of the province's GDP in 2018. Saskatchewan grows a large portion of Canada's grain. In 2017, the production of
canola
Close-up of canola blooms
Canola flower
Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae. Historically, i ...
surpassed the production of
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
, which is Saskatchewan's most familiar crop and the one most often associated with the province. The total net income from farming was $3.3 billion in 2017, which was $0.9 billion less than the income in 2016. Other grains such as
flax
Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...
,
rye,
oat
The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human con ...
s,
pea
The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...
s,
lentil
The lentil (''Lens culinaris'' or ''Lens esculenta'') is an edible legume. It is an annual plant known for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each. As a food crop, the largest pro ...
s, canary seed, and
barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...
are also produced in the province. Saskatchewan is the world's largest exporter of mustard seed.
Beef cattle
Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk production). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef.
In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf operat ...
production by a Canadian province is only exceeded by Alberta. In the northern part of the province, forestry is also a significant industry.
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
is a major industry in the province, with Saskatchewan being the world's largest exporter of
potash
Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. and
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
.
Oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
and
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
production is also a very important part of Saskatchewan's economy, although the Petroleum industry, oil industry is larger. Among Canadian provinces, only Alberta exceeds Saskatchewan in overall oil production. Heavy crude is extracted in the Lloydminster-Kerrobert-Kindersley areas. Light crude is found in the Kindersley-Swift Current areas as well as the Weyburn-Estevan fields. Natural gas is found almost entirely in the western part of Saskatchewan, from the Primrose Lake area through Lloydminster, Unity, Kindersley, Leader, and around Maple Creek areas.
A list of the companies includes The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (defunct in December 2017), Federated Co-operatives, Federated Cooperatives Ltd. and SSAB, IPSCO.
Major Saskatchewan-based Crown corporations are Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), SaskTel, SaskEnergy (the province's main supplier of natural gas), and SaskPower. Bombardier Aerospace, Bombardier runs the NATO Flying Training Centre at 15 Wing, near
Moose Jaw
Moose Jaw is the fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javian ...
. Bombardier was awarded a long-term contract in the late 1990s for $2.8 billion from the Politics of Canada, federal government for the purchase of military aircraft and the running of the training facility. SaskPower since 1929 has been the principal supplier of electricity in Saskatchewan, serving more than 451,000 customers and managing $4.5 billion in assets. SaskPower is a major employer in the province with almost 2,500 permanent full-time staff located in 71 communities.
Education
Publicly funded elementary and secondary schools in the province are administered by List of Saskatchewan school divisions, twenty-seven school divisions. Public elementary and secondary schools either operate as secular education, secular or as a separate schools. Nearly all school divisions, except one operate as an English
first language
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother to ...
school board. The Division scolaire francophone No. 310 is the only school division that operates French first language schools. In addition to elementary and secondary schools, the province is also home to several post-secondary institutions.
The first education on the prairies took place within the family groups of the First Nations and early fur trade, fur trading settlers. There were only a few missionary or trading post schools established in
Rupert's Land – later known as the Territorial evolution of Canada, North West Territories. The first 76
North-West Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
school districts and the first Board of Education meeting formed in 1886. The pioneering boom formed Block Settlement, ethnic bloc settlements. Communities were seeking education for their children similar to the schools of their homeland. Log cabins, and dwellings were constructed for the assembly of the community, school, church, dances and meetings.
The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties and the success of farmers in proving up on their homesteads helped provide funding to standardize education. Textbooks, normal schools for educating teachers, formal school curricula and state of the art One-room school, school house architectural plans provided continuity throughout the province. English as the school language helped to provide economic stability because one community could communicate with another and goods could be traded and sold in a common language. The number of one-room schoolhouse districts across Saskatchewan totalled approximately 5,000 at the height of this system of education in the late 1940s.
Following World War II, the transition from many one-room schoolhouses to fewer and larger consolidated modern technological town and city schools occurred as a means of ensuring technical education. School buses, highways, and family vehicles create ease and accessibility of a population shift to larger towns and cities. Combines and tractors mean the farmer could manage more than a quarter section of land, so there was a shift from family farms and subsistence crops to cash crops grown on many sections of land. School vouchers have been newly proposed as a means of allowing competition between rural schools and making the operation of co-operative schools practicable in rural areas.
Healthcare
![Royal University Hospital](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Royal_University_Hospital.jpg)
Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health (Saskatchewan), Ministry of Health is responsible for policy direction, sets and monitors standards, and provides funding for regional health authorities and provincial health services. Saskatchewan's health system is a single payer health care, single-payer system. Medical practitioners in Saskatchewan are independent contractors. They remit their accounts to the publicly funded Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Plan, which pays the accounts. Patients do not pay anything to their doctors or hospitals for medical care.
In 1944, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a left-wing agrarian and labour party, won the provincial election in Saskatchewan and formed the first socialist government in North American history. Repeatedly re-elected, the CFC campaigned in the early 1960s on the theme of universal health coverage and, after winning the election again, implemented it, the first in Canada. However, it was fiercely opposed by the province's doctors' union, which went on a massive strike the day the new system came into effect. Supported by the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, most newspapers and the right-wing Keep Our Doctors movement, the doctors' union ran an effective communications campaign portraying the universal health care system as a communist scheme that would spread disease. The strike, which had become very unpopular because of the outrageous rhetoric of some of its leaders (one of them had called for bloodshed), finally ended after a few weeks, and universal health coverage was adopted by the whole country five years later.
Government and politics
![Saskatchewan Legislative Building Front](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Saskatchewan_Legislative_Building_Front.JPG)
Saskatchewan has the same form of government as the other Canadian provinces with a Lieutenant-Governor (Canada), lieutenant-governor (who is the representative of the Monarchy in Saskatchewan, King in Right of Saskatchewan),
premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
, and a unicameral legislature.
During the 20th century, Saskatchewan was one of Canada's more left-wing provinces, reflecting the slant of its many rural citizens which distrusted the distant capital government and which favored a strong local government to attend to their issues. In 1944 Tommy Douglas became premier of the first avowedly socialism, socialist regional government in North America. Most of his Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) represented rural and small-town ridings. Under his Cooperative Commonwealth Federation government, Saskatchewan became the first province to have Medicare (Canada), Medicare. In 1961, Douglas left provincial politics to become the first leader of the federal New Democratic Party (Canada), New Democratic Party. In the 21st century, Saskatchewan began to drift to the right-wing, generally attributed to the Petroleum industry in Canada#Saskatchewan, province's economy shifting toward oil and gas production. In the 2015 Canadian federal election, 2015 federal election, the Conservative Party of Canada won ten of the province's fourteen seats, followed by the New Democratic Party with three and the Liberal Party of Canada with one; in the 2019 Canadian federal election, 2019 election, the Conservatives won in all of Saskatchewan's 14 seats, sweeping their competition.
Provincial politics in Saskatchewan is dominated by the social democracy, social-democratic Saskatchewan New Democratic Party and the centre-right
Saskatchewan Party
The Saskatchewan Party is a centre-right political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Since 2007, it has been the province's governing party; both the party and the province are currently led by Premier Scott Moe. The party was est ...
, with the latter holding the majority in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan since 2007 Saskatchewan general election, 2007. The current Premier of Saskatchewan is
Scott Moe, who took over the leadership of the Saskatchewan Party in 2018 Saskatchewan Party leadership election, 2018 following the resignation of Brad Wall. Numerous smaller political parties also run candidates in provincial elections, including the Green Party of Saskatchewan, Liberal Party of Saskatchewan, and the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan, but none is currently represented in the Legislative Assembly (federal Conservatives and Liberals generally favour the Saskatchewan Party in provincial elections).
No Prime Minister of Canada has been born in Saskatchewan, but two (William Lyon Mackenzie King and John Diefenbaker) represented the province in the House of Commons of Canada during their tenures as head of government.
Administrative divisions
![Saskatchewan Municipalities](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Saskatchewan_Municipalities.png)
Below the provincial level of government, Saskatchewan is divided into urban and rural municipalities. The Government of Saskatchewan's Ministry of Municipal Relations recognizes three general types of municipalities and seven sub-types – urban municipalities (City, cities, towns, villages and resort villages), Rural municipality, rural municipalities and northern municipalities (northern towns, northern villages and northern hamlets).
The vast majority of the land mass of Northern Saskatchewan is within the unorganized Northern Saskatchewan Administration District. Cities are formed under the provincial authority of ''The Cities Act'', which was enacted in 2002.
Towns, villages, resort villages and rural municipalities are formed under the authority of ''The Municipalities Act'', enacted in 2005.
The three sub-types of northern municipalities are formed under the authority of ''The Northern Municipalities Act'', enacted in 2010.
As provincial laws, these three acts were passed by the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan with royal assent granted by the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, Lieutenant Governor.
In 2016, Saskatchewan's 774 municipality, municipalities covered of the province's land mass and were home to of its population.
These 774 municipalities are local government "creatures of provincial jurisdiction" with legal personality.
One of the key purposes of Saskatchewan's municipalities are "to provide services, facilities and other things that, in the opinion of council, are necessary or desirable for all or a part of the municipality".
Other purposes are to: "provide good government"; "develop and maintain a safe and viable community"; "foster economic, social and environmental well-being" and "provide wise stewardship of public assets."
Transportation
Transportation in Saskatchewan includes an infrastructure system of roads, highways, freeways, airports, ferries, pipelines, trails, waterways and railway systems serving a population of approximately 1,003,299 (according to 2007 estimates) inhabitants year-round. It is funded primarily with Government of Saskatchewan, local and canada, federal government funds. The Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation estimates 80% of traffic is carried on the 5,031-kilometre principal system of highways.
![QuAppelleRiverHwy2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/QuAppelleRiverHwy2.jpg)
The Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure (Saskatchewan), Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure operates over of highways and Dual carriageway, divided highways. There are also municipal roads which comprise different surfaces. Asphalt concrete pavements comprise almost , granular pavement almost , non structural or thin membrane surface TMS are close to and finally gravel highways make up over through the province. In the northern sector, ice roads which can only be navigated in the winter months comprise another approximately of travel.
Saskatchewan has over of roads and highways, the highest length of road surface of any Canadian province.
The major highways in Saskatchewan are the Saskatchewan Highway 1, Trans Canada expressway, Saskatchewan Highway 16, Yellowhead Highway northern Trans Canada route, Saskatchewan Highway 11, Louis Riel Trail, Saskatchewan Highway 2, CanAm Highway, Saskatchewan Highway 13, Red Coat Trail, Saskatchewan Highway 55, Northern Woods and Water route, and Saskatchewan Highway 9, Saskota travel route.
The first Canadian transcontinental railway was constructed by the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...
(CPR) between 1881 and 1885. After the great east–west transcontinental railway was built, north–south connector branch lines were established. The 1920s saw the largest rise in rail line track as the CPR and Canadian National Railway (CNR) fell into competition to provide rail service within ten kilometres. In the 1960s there were applications for abandonment of branch lines.
Today the only two passenger rail services in the province are ''The Canadian'' and Winnipeg–Churchill train, both operated by Via Rail. ''The Canadian'' is a transcontinental service linking Toronto with Vancouver.
The main Saskatchewan waterways are the North Saskatchewan River or South Saskatchewan River routes. In total, there are 3,050 bridges maintained by the Department of Highways in Saskatchewan.
There are currently twelve ferry services operating in the province, all under the jurisdiction of the Department of Highways.
The Saskatoon/John G. Diefenbaker International Airport, Saskatoon Airport was initially established as part of the Royal Canadian Air Force training program during World War II. It was renamed the John G. Diefenbaker Airport in 1993.
''Roland J. Groome Airfield'' is the official designation for the Regina International Airport as of 2005; the airport was established in 1930.
Airlines offering service to Saskatchewan are Air Canada, WestJet Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Transwest Air, Sunwing Airlines, Norcanair Airlines, La Ronge Aviation Services Ltd, La Loche Airways, Osprey Wings Ltd, Buffalo Narrows Airways Ltd, Île-à-la-Crosse Airways Ltd, Voyage Air, Pronto Airways, Venture Air Ltd, Pelican Narrows Air Service, Jackson Air Services Ltd, and Northern Dene Airways Ltd.
The Government of Canada agreed to contribute $20 million for two new interchanges in
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
. One of them being at the Saskatchewan Highway 219, Highway 219/Lorne Avenue intersection with Circle Drive, the other at the Senator Sid Buckwold Bridge (Idylwyld Freeway) and Circle Drive. This is part of the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative to improve access to the CNR's intermodal freight terminal thereby increasing Asia-Pacific trade. Also, the Government of Canada will contribute $27 million to Regina to construct a CPR intermodal facility and improve infrastructure transportation to the facility from both national highway networks, Saskatchewan Highway 1, Highway 1, the TransCanada Highway and Saskatchewan Highway 11, Highway 11, Louis Riel Trail. This also is part of the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative to improve access to the CPR terminal and increase Asia-Pacific trade.
Culture
![RoyalSaskMuseum Front](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/RoyalSaskMuseum_Front.jpg)
Saskatchewan is home to a List of museums in Saskatchewan, number of museums. The Royal Saskatchewan Museum serves as the Provincial museums of Canada, provincial museum of the province. Other museums include Diefenbaker House, The Evolution of Education Museum, Evolution of Education Museum, Museum of Antiquities (Saskatoon), Museum of Antiquities, the RCMP Heritage Centre, Rotary Museum of Police and Corrections, Saskatchewan Science Centre, Saskatchewan Western Development Museum, and the T.rex Discovery Centre.
Art
The province is home to several art galleries, including MacKenzie Art Gallery, and Remai Modern. The province is also home to several performing arts centres including the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina, and TCU Place in Saskatoon. PAVED Arts, a new media art, new media artist-run space, is also located in Saskatoon.
Music
The province is presently home to several concert orchestras, the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, and the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra. The Regina Symphony Orchestra is at the Conexus Arts Centre, while the Saskatoon performs at TCU Place.
Literature
A leading writer from Saskatchewan is W. O. Mitchell (1914–1998), born in Weyburn. His best-loved novel is ''Who Has Seen the Wind (novel), Who Has Seen the Wind'' (1947), which portrays life on the
Canadian Prairies
The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...
and sold almost a million copies in Canada.
[CBC Radio Canada]
Book Profile: Who Has Seen the Wind
. CBC Books, cbc.ca. Retrieved on: 2012-12-26 As a broadcaster, he is known for his radio series Jake and the Kid, which aired on CBC Radio between 1950 and 1956 and was also about life on the Prairies.
Sports
![Mosaic Stadium Exterior](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Mosaic_Stadium_Exterior.jpg)
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are the province's professional Canadian football team (playing in the Canadian Football League) and are extremely popular across Saskatchewan. The team's fans are also found to congregate on game days throughout Canada, and collectively they are known as "Rider Nation". The province's other major sports franchise is the Saskatchewan Rush of the National Lacrosse League. In their first year of competition, 2016, the Rush won both their Division Title and the League Championship.
Ice hockey, Hockey is the most popular sport in the province. More than 490 National Hockey League, NHL players have been born in Saskatchewan, the highest per capita output of any Canadian province, U.S. state, or European country. Notable NHL figures born in Saskatchewan include Keith Allen (ice hockey), Keith Allen, Gordie Howe, Bryan Trottier, Bernie Federko, Clark Gillies, Fern Flaman, Bert Olmstead, Harry Watson (ice hockey b. 1923), Harry Watson, Elmer Lach, Max Bentley, Sid Abel, Doug Bentley, Eddie Shore, Clint Smith, Bryan Hextall, Johnny Bower, Emile Francis, Glenn Hall, Chuck Rayner, Brad McCrimmon, Patrick Marleau, Dave Manson, Theoren Fleury, Theo Fleury, Terry Harper, Wade Redden, Brian Propp, Scott Hartnell, Ryan Getzlaf, and Chris Kunitz. Saskatchewan does not have an NHL or minor professional franchise, but five teams in the junior ice hockey, junior Western Hockey League are located in the province: the Moose Jaw Warriors, Prince Albert Raiders, Regina Pats, Saskatoon Blades and Swift Current Broncos.
![Emma Lake area 2014-12-31 16-03-32 0039 KC (15556369354)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Emma_Lake_area_2014-12-31_16-03-32_0039_KC_%2815556369354%29.jpg)
In 2015, Budweiser honoured Saskatchewan for their abundance of hockey players by sculpting a 12-foot-tall hockey player monument in ice for Saskatchewan's capital city of Regina. The company then filmed this frozen monument for a national television commercial, thanking the province for creating so many goal scorers throughout hockey's history. Budweiser also gifted the "hockey player" province a trophy made of white birch—Saskatchewan's provincial tree—which bears the name of every pro player in history. Sitting atop the trophy was a golden Budweiser Red Light, synched to every current Saskatchewan player in the pros. This trophy can currently be seen at Victoria Bar in Regina.
Historically, Saskatchewan has been one of the strongest curling provinces. Teams from Saskatchewan have finished in the top three places at 38 Tim Hortons Brier, briers and top two places in Scotties Tournament of Hearts, women's championships. Notable curlers from Saskatchewan include Sandra Schmirler, Ernie Richardson (curler), Ernie Richardson, and Vera Pezer. In a 2019 The Sports Network, TSN poll, experts ranked Schmirler's Saskatchewan team, which won a gold medal at the Curling at the 1998 Winter Olympics, 1998 Olympics, as the greatest women's team in Canada's history.
Symbols
![Tartan of Saskatchewan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Tartan_of_Saskatchewan.png)
The flag of Saskatchewan was officially adopted on September 22, 1969. The flag features the Coat of arms of Saskatchewan, provincial shield in the upper quarter nearest the staff, with the floral emblem, the Lilium philadelphicum, Prairie Lily, in the fly. The upper green (in forest green) half of the flag represents the northern Saskatchewan forest lands, while the golden lower half of the flag symbolizes the southern wheat fields and prairies. A province-wide competition was held to design the flag, and drew over 4,000 entries. The winning design was by Anthony Drake, then living in Hodgeville, Saskatchewan, Hodgeville.
In 2005, Saskatchewan Environment held a province-wide vote to recognize Saskatchewan's centennial year, receiving more than 10,000 online and mail-in votes from the public. The walleye was the overwhelming favourite of the six native fish species nominated for the designation, receiving more than half the votes cast.
Other species in the running were the lake sturgeon, lake trout, lake whitefish, northern pike and yellow perch.
Saskatchewan's other symbols include the tartan, the licence plate, and the provincial flower. Saskatchewan's official tartan was registered with the Court of Lord Lyon King of Arms in Scotland in 1961. It has seven colours: gold, brown, green, red, yellow, white and black. The provincial licence plates display the slogan "Land of Living Skies". The provincial flower of Saskatchewan is the western red lily.
Centennial celebrations
In 2005, Saskatchewan celebrated its centennial. To honour it, the Royal Canadian Mint issued a commemorative five-dollar coin depicting Canada's wheat fields as well as a circulation Quarter (Canadian coin), 25-cent coin of a similar design. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited
Regina,
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
, and Lumsden, Saskatchewan, Lumsden, and the Saskatchewan-reared Joni Mitchell issued an album in Saskatchewan's honour.
See also
* Outline of Saskatchewan
* Index of Saskatchewan-related articles
Notes
References
Further reading
''Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan''* Archer, John H. ''Saskatchewan: A History.'' Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1980. 422 pp.
* Bennett, John W. and Kohl, Seena B.
Settling the Canadian-American West, 1890–1915.'' University of Nebraska Press, 1995. 311 pp.
* Waiser, Bill. ''Saskatchewan: A New History'' (2006)
* Bocking, D. H., ed. ''Pages from the Past: Essays on Saskatchewan History.'' Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1979. 299 pp.
* LaPointe, Richard and Tessier, Lucille. ''The Francophones of Saskatchewan: A History.'' Regina: University of Regina, Campion Coll., 1988. 329 pp.
* Lipset, Seymour M.
Agrarian Socialism: The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in Saskatchewan: A Study in Political Sociology.'' University of California Press, 1950.
* Martin, Robin ''Shades of Right: Nativist and Fascist Politics in Canada, 1920–1940'', University of Toronto Press, 1992.
*
*
External links
*
Tourism Saskatchewan*
Saskatchewan History Online
{{Authority control
Saskatchewan,
1905 establishments in Canada
Provinces and territories of Canada
States and territories established in 1905
Canadian Prairies