Quote:
Originally Posted by CCF
The new Hub of Saskatchewan? According to whom exactly?? Perhaps you should back up your claims and you suggested to me.
If not for the university then Saskatoon would be what exactly?
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To be fair - I think the question should be "if not for the University of Regina", then how much better could the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon be?
I understand civic pride will always make you favour Regina - but I'm a former Saskatchewan resident and I recall learning that Regina was made the capital, and a short while later the provincial university was given to Saskatoon. A little something for everyone, if you will. The Regina Campus was a division of the University of Saskatchewan - all under the same administration. Then along came the 1970's, and suddenly the "need" for a University of Regina (arguably an NDP vote-buying mechanism from Regina MLA and premier Allan Blakeney).
Result: Two universities competing against each other for funds, rather than having a more efficient single adminstration and allocation of higher education dollars throughout the province of Saskatchewan.
I understand Regina also gets a large government grant for its "provincial" art gallery (MacKenzie Art Gallery), whereas by comparison the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon receives barely a pittance from the government.
All this government funding of various educational and cultural institutions, yet the population of Saskatoon has outgrown Regina for the past couple of decades.
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Notwithstanding all this however, Regina still has a lot going on its favour - namely "recognition". For whatever reason, Saskatoon is either not known, or it poorly markets itself east of the Saskatchewan- Manitoba border. A significant number of Torontonians (where I'm now living) believe that the ONLY city in Saskatchewan is Regina, and that Saskatoon is nothing more than a secondary city - possibly not much bigger than Moose Jaw (which also seems to garner more recognition than Saskatoon).