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Regina, Saskatchewan

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Template:Canadian City

Regina, Saskatchewan

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 (pronounced [ɹəˈdʒaɪ.nə]) is located at 50°26′N 104°37′W / 50.433°N 104.617°W / 50.433; -104.617. Regina's elevation is 577 metres (1,893 ft) above mean sea level.

Template:Canada CP 2001 Regina's metropolitan area population was 198,600 as of 2004.

Demographics

Age Structure

  • 0-14 years: 20%
  • 15-64 years: 67.5%
  • 65 years and over: 12.5%

Racial Diversity

Religious Groups

Top Ten Ethnic Groups

  • German 60,580
  • English 48,830
  • Canadian 46,860
  • Scottish 37,275
  • Irish 30,350
  • Ukrainian 23,220
  • French 19,265
  • Aboriginal 11,945
  • Polish 11,035
  • Norwegian 9,635

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 dependence 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 the evening of July 1, 1935, a public meeting was called for in Market Square to bring the public up to date on what had happened so far. It was attended by 1500 to 2000 people, of whom only 300 were trekkers. The main body of the trekkers had decided to stay at the exibition grounds.

Three large vans were parked on the sides of the square concealing RCMP riot squads. Regina police concealed themselves in a nearby garage. At 8:00pm a whistle was blown and the police charged from their concealment, clubbing everyone within reach indiscriminately.

The attack caught the people at the meeting by surprise, but then anger took over. They began to fight back with anything at hand, sticks, stones, and anything at hand.

RCMP mounted on horseback then charged into the crowd and attacked with clubs.

Driven from the Square,the battle continued in the surrounding streets for four hours.

Trekkers on the speakers' platform were arrested by a body of police in plain clothes.

The police began firing their revolvers above and into groups of people. Tear gas bombs were thrown at any groups that gathered together.

Plate glass windows in stores and offices were smashed. There was no looting, with one exception, however.

People covered their faces with wet handkerchiefs to counter the effects of the tear gas and barricaded streets with cars.

Finally the Trekkers who had attended the meeting made their way individually or in small groups back to the exibition stadium where the main body of trekkers were quartered.

When it was over, 120 trekkers and citizens had been arrested. One plain clothes policeman killed. Hundreds of local citizens and Trekkers who had been wounded by police gunfire or otherwise injured were taken to hospitals or private homes. Those taken to hospital were also arrested.

Property damage was considerable.

The police claimed 39 injuries in addition to the one in plain clothes who had been killed.

The Stadium was surrounded by constables armed with revolvers and machine guns. The next day a barbed wire stockade was erected around the stadium. The Trekkers in the stadium were denied any food or water

News of the police-inspired riot made the front page in newspapers across Canada.

About midnight one of the Trek leaders telephoned Premier Gardiner who agreed to meet their delegation the next morning. The RCMP were livid when they heard of this. They took the men to the police station for interrogation but finally released them so they could see the premier.

Premier Gardiner sent a wire to Prime Minister Bennett accusing the police of "precipitating a riot" while he had been negotiating a settlement with the Trekkers. He also told the prime minister the "men should be fed where they are and sent back to camp and homes as they request" and stated his government was prepared to "undertake this work of disbanding the men." An agreement to this effect was subsequently negotiated.


Prime Minister Bennett was satisfied that he had smashed the Trek and taught the citizens of Regina a lesson. Gardiner was happy that he was getting rid of the strikers from Regina and the province.

The federal minister of justice made the false statement in the House of Commons on July 2 that "shots were fired by the strikers and the fire was replied to with shots from the city police."

During the long course of the trials that followed no evidence was ever produced by the Crown that strikers had ever fired any shots.

Prime Minister Bennett further added to the misrepresentation by stating in the House of Commons the same day that the Trek was "not a mere uprising against law and order but a definite revolutionary effort on the part of a group of men to usurp authority and destroy government."

Little did they know what the political repercussions of their forcible suppression of a protest movement against the relief camps would be. The Conservatives lost the October 1935 election

Transportation

The city's public transit agency, Regina Transit, operates a fleet of buses 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 communities

Towns that are in close proximity to Regina include White City, Emerald Park, Balgonie, Grand Coulee, Lumsden, Moose Jaw, and Pilot Butte. Regina is 250 km south-southeast 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's Regina Cougars and Regina Rams of the CIS, and 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

File:Dkwasc3.jpg
Wascana Lake from the Willow Island Overlook

Wascana Centre 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.

 
Wascana Centre with Regina Skyline in Background

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

Television Stations

Newspapers

Famous Reginans

Notable persons who were born or grew up in Regina:

List of mayors of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canadian cities

North: Lumsden
West: Moose Jaw Regina East: Pilot Butte
South: Weyburn

Attractions

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