In conversation the other day I heard someone refer to Saskatoon as the “Paris of the Prairies”. I haven’t heard it called that for a while. There was an attempt to label it as such back in the early 2000’s if memory serves but it fizzled out, which is probably fair considering Winnipeg was actually the first city to lay claim to that moniker way back at the beginning of the 20th century as a gimmick to entice settlers. Then in 1912 planners in Calgary had a notion to call it that as they wanted to develop Cowtown similar to the rebuilding of Paris in the time of Napoleon III who wanted the city rebuilt as his legacy. And, of course, we do have a “Paris of the Prairies”, the town of Montmartre, right here in Saskatchewan that adopted the slogan as its beautification and economic development theme just under a decade ago. The town has a 28 feet tall, 1/38th scale replica of the Eiffel Tower, or as the French say, La Tour Eiffel. So let us render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars’s, in this case a name we really have no right to claim, and instead stick with one from the list of others we’ve been saddled with through the years such as the Hub City, POW City, City of Bridges, or how about “Jewel of the Prairies”? I like that last one. It has a nice ring to it.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.