We are breaking new ground with this one as I take pleasure in welcoming listeners in The Pas Manitoba, and I must begin with a mea culpa’.
I am indeed a prairie boy, but like more than 80% of Canadians, I have lived all of my life no more than an hour’s drive north of the U.S. border. Thirty-seven years ago, I paid an overnight visit to Meadow Lake. That was the furthest north I ever got in Saskatchewan.
The Manitoba story is not much different. I watched the whales frolicking in the bay at Churchill many years ago, but I was not allowed to get off the plane because our final destination was Yellowknife. In 1990, I spent two whole nights in Thompson, but most of my time was at the local CBC station where were we doing a special program.
And most recently, about five years ago, I spent a couple of nights in Flin Flon, stopping off for a fabulous lunch at a fascinating eatery called ‘Miss The Pas’. That is it.
As a comfortable southerner I have much to learn, and I would love to hear your stories, where-ever you might reside. My limited experience has persuaded me that I have missed a lot, just in terms of breathtaking scenery. Many Northerners are often justifiably resentful of people who live in places like Winnipeg.
We complain about problems with health care, but we ain’t seen nothing yet compared to how things are in many parts of the north. The economy of the north is under a lot of stress right now. Jobs in forestry and mining, which used to be growing in numbers, have been disappearing.
The crisis in Churchill is showing us just how bad things might get going forward.
Hang in there my new friends, and I promise to shine a light your way, whenever I can.
I’m Roger Currie
