Last week we spent Thursday to Saturday in Saskatchewan's capital city, named after the great Queen Victoria, Regina for me was always "the" city. I grew up about one hundred twenty miles from Regina and of course it was Regina radio and television that we watched and listened to. Its funny how you can become attached to a place especially a small prairie city. For me Regina was a big place and it wasn't until the last few decades that I have come to realise that it is really not much more than a big small town.

It is Regina's size that is remarkable. Both Saskatoon and Regina are basically on the run as development, both commercial and residential make these two relatively small communities the fastest growing places in the country.

I went to university both undergraduate and grad school in Regina and at various times in my life lived and worked in the city. For four months I worked as a retail person and for another six months I taught classroom music in twenty-two different classrooms in six different schools. Regina will never be home but it will always be familiar and as it grows and stretches the place takes on a new and expanding flavour.

Though Regina and Saskatoon to their loyal residents seem like drastically different places they both share a lot of things. High crime rates, dramatic growth, an amazing expansion of ethnic immigrants adding to the cultural mix of the communities and they both share the optomism that is so much a part of being a Saskatchewan community.