Regina, Saskatchewan
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Template:Canadian City Regina is the provincial capital of Saskatchewan, Canada and was incorporated as a city on June 19, 1903. Regina was proclaimed the capital on May 23, 1906 by the first provincial government led by Premier Walter Scott.
Regina is located at Template:Coor dm. Regina's elevation is 577 metres (1,893 ft) above mean sea level.
Template:Canada CP 2001 Regina's metropolitan area population was 192,800 as of 2001.
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Demographics
Age Structure
- 0-14 years: 20%
- 15-64 years: 67.5%
- 65 years and over: 12.5%
Racial Diversity
- Caucasian: 85.7%
- Aboriginal: 8.7%
- Chinese: 1.3%
- Other: 4.3%
Religious Groups
- Protestant: 41.5%
- Catholic: 32.3%
- Christian Orthodox: 1.8%
- Other Christian: 2.9%
- No religion: 19.0%
History
Regina was founded in 1882 when the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed a transcontinental railroad line through the region. The Dominion Lands Act encouraged homesteaders to come to the area where they could purchase 160 acres (647,000 m²) of land for $10. The city was originally known as the "Pile of Bones", because of the large amounts of buffalo bones in the area.
The hamlet of Pile of Bones was renamed in 1882 to Regina (Latin for queen) by Princess Louise, the wife of Canada's Governor General, in honour of her mother Queen Victoria, the British monarch at the time. Reginans commonly refer to Regina as the "Queen City".
In 1883 Regina was chosen as the new capital of the Northwest Territories over Battleford, given its close proximity to the railroad. Regina remained the territorial capital until 1905 when Saskatchewan became a province. On December 1, 1883, Regina was officially declared a town. The town's first mayor, David Scott, was elected on January 10, 1884.
In one of the sombre notes of the city's history, Louis Riel was brought to Regina after being defeated by government forces in the North-West Rebellion. Riel was found guilty of treason and hanged on November 16, 1885. The trial was re-enacted each summer by local actors in the Trial of Louis Riel for many years, but was not presented in 2004 and the production's future is in doubt.
From 1892 to 1920, Regina was the headquarters of the North West Mounted Police, and it is now western headquarters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and home of the RCMP Training Academy.
With a population of more than 3,000, Regina was incorporated as a city on June 19, 1903, with Jacob W. Smith serving as the first mayor. After Saskatchewan became a province on September 1, 1905, Regina was officially decreed the capital on May 23, 1906. In 1908 the first city hall was completed on the current site of the Galleria in downtown Regina while work commenced on constructing the province's legislative buildings beside Wascana Lake.
The city is home of the first commercial airport and was the location for the first air mail flight in Canada.
On June 30, 1912, a tornado devastated the city, killing 28, injuring hundreds and destroying more than 400 buildings. The estimated $5 million dollars in damage took more than two years to repair. Future horror film star Boris Karloff, who was in Regina at the time appearing in a play, served as a rescue worker after the disaster. The Regina Cyclone, as it came to be known, remains the deadliest tornado event in Canadian history.
In July 1933, a group of farmers, labour and social organizations met in Regina to form the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation or CCF. In 1944, the CCF would go on in Saskatchewan to form North America's first socialist government and provide Canada's first example of a publicly funded health care system. The CCF health care model was later adopted across all of Canada.
Regina was a great contributor to the Canadian War effort in both World Wars. Young men from Regina volunteered for service forming the Regina Rifles (infantry) as well as the HMCS Regina and the HMCS Wascana regiments of the Canadian Navy. Hundreds of Regina men flew for the Royal Air Force and ultimately the Royal Canadian Airforce during 1939 through 1945. During the war years, Regina became the hub of training activity for Allied Forces as pilots and navigators from Australia, New Zealand and England trained in Commonwealth Air Training Bases in the surrounding communities.
After the war, Regina grew as a regional distribution centre for farming and rural activity. Not until the 1970's did the economy begin to shift from agri-base to industrial based activity, although agriculture continues to dominate the economy of the city and province. In 1971, Jack Walker, a former RCAF bomber pilot, real estate developer and city alderman took control of the industrial development of the city and began to diversify the local economy by encouraging light industrial business. In 1973 Deere & Co International selected Regina as the Western Distribution Centre for all John Deere equipment. This vote of confidence in the young city combined with the expansion of the Imperial Oil Refinery; the development of the Coop Refinery; and the development of the Inter Provincial Steel Plant began to lessen the city's dependance on agricultural employment.
Regina Riot
The Great Depression of the 1930s caused massive unemployment in western Canada. As frustrations grew among the unemployed, 1,300 men boarded trains in Vancouver bound for Ottawa to demand work from the federal government. The issue came to a boiling point in Regina, where the numbers had swelled to 1,800 by the time the Prime Minister intervened and ordered the protest to be disbanded. On July 1, 1935, the protests turned violent in the culmination of the "Regina Riot". During the three hours of fighting, one police officer was killed and over 80 protestors, police officers and bystanders were injured.
Transportation
The city operates a fleet of buses for public transportation with access to the city centre from most areas of the city. Regina can be reached by several highways:
- Trans-Canada Highway, from the west and east sides
- Highway 6 from the north and south. The US border is 160 km south on highway 6.
- Highway 11 from the north/northwest. Saskatoon is 250 km NNW.
- Highway 33 from the southeast.
- Highway 46 from the northeast
Regina International Airport on the west side of the city has four gates which handles flights to major centres in Canada as well as daily flights to/from Minneapolis via Northwest Airlines.
Education
The University of Regina located in the southeast corner of the city has over 12,500 students as of the 2002-2003 academic year. Western Christian College is a small Christian college which recently relocated to Regina. The Public School Board operates over 50 elementary schools and nine high schools. The Separate School Board operates over 20 elementary schools and five high schools. Luther College is a well-known private school; also see Notre Dame College, Wilcox.
Nearby towns
Towns that are in close proximity to Regina include White City, Emerald Park, Balgonie, Lumsden, and Pilot Butte. Regina is 250 km south of Saskatoon (2 hour drive).
Sports teams
Sports teams of Regina include the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League, the Prairie Thunder of the Canadian Junior Football League, the [University of Regina|University of Regina Cougars]] and Regina Rams of the CIS as well as the home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL. The Saskatchewan Roughriders have the distinction of being a community-owned professional sports team and hold the Canadian record for most consecutive winning seasons. The Riders have a strong and loyal fan support base. Out-of-town season ticket holders often travel 300 to 400 kilometers to attend home games.
Wascana Centre
Wascana Centre (http://wascana.sk.ca/) is a 9.3 square kilometre (2,300 acre) park built around Wascana Lake. It is one of North America's largest urban parks - ahead of New York City Central Park 843 acres (3.4 km²) and Vancouver's Stanley Park 1,000 acres (4 km²), it includes a Waterfowl Park that provides a refuge for geese and other birds that do not fly south for the winter. Speakers' Corner on the north shore of Wascana Lake features gas lamps from London and birch trees from Runnymede Meadow where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215.
In the 1930s as part of a government relief project, 2,100 men widened and dredged Wascana Creek using only hand tools and horse-drawn wagons to form Wascana Lake. During the fall and winter of 2003-2004, Wascana Lake was drained and then dredged to deepen its depth by about 5 metres (16 ft), primarily to decrease weed growth during the summer months. The project also included general re-landscaping around the lake, including the addition of a new island. The dredging was completed in mid-March 2004, just in time for the spring runoff.
Local Media
Radio Stations
- 540 CBK CBC Radio One News, general interest
- 620 CKRM Country
- 980 CJME News/Talk
- 91.3 CJTR-FM Community
- 92.1 CHMX-FM Lite92fm Lite/AC
- 94.5 CKCK-FM Rock 94 Rock
- 96.9 CBK-FM CBC Radio Two Classical
- 97.7 CBKF-FM Radio-Canada Premiere Chaine French-language
- 98.9 CIZL-FM Z99 Adult Contemporary/Top 40
- 102.5 CBKR-FM CBC Radio One Simulcast of 540 CBK
- 104.9 CFWF-FM 104.9 The Wolf Rock
Television Stations
- 2 CKCK CTV
- 9 CBKT CBC
- 11 CFRE Global
- 13 CBKFT Radio-Canada
Newspapers
- The Leader-Post Daily
- Regina Sun Weekly, free
- Prairie Dog Weekly, free
Famous Reginans
Notable persons who were born or grew up in Regina:
- Colin James, blues-rock musician
- Leslie Nielsen, actor
- John Vernon, actor
Related articles
List of mayors of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canadian cities
| North: Lumsden | ||
| West: Moose Jaw | Regina | East: White City |
| South: Weyburn |
External links
- City of Regina web site (http://www.regina.ca)
- City of Regina Property Tax Search (http://www2.regina.ca/search/)
- City of Regina Transit (http://www.reginatransit.com)
- Regina Fire Department (http://www.regina.ca/content/info_services/fire/)
- Wascana Centre (http://wascana.sk.ca/)
Attractions
- Casino Regina (http://www.casinoregina.com/) - located in an old train station
- MacKenzie Art Gallery (http://www.mackenzieartgallery.sk.ca/)
- RCMP Museum (http://www.rcmpmuseum.com/)
- Regina Downtown (http://www.reginadowntown.ca/)
- Regina Plains Museum (http://www.tourismregina.com/regina_plains.html)
- Royal Saskatchewan Museum (http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/)
- Saskatchewan Science Centre (http://www.sasksciencecentre.com/) - includes an IMAX theatre
- Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame (http://www.sshfm.com/)
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