Day 27: A Day Off in the Queen City

Before the Provinces in the west were formed, the whole area was known as the Northwest Territories. In 1882, Regina was founded, originally called "Pile of Bones" because of the buildup of buffalo bones slaughtered by hide hunters. The CPR had expanded to Qu'Appelle and was destined to go through Battleford to the north, but the "scheming " Lt. Governor at the time, Edgar Dewdney, had purchased a large tract of land at present site of Regina and guess what: the CPR "decided" to go through Regina. Interesting way of doing business as Gin's uncle Bill Parish would say. Eventually the area was populated by the lure of 160 acres for $10.

On a sunny Friday afternoon, we staged a rally in F.W. Hill Mall, where passers by grabbing a bite sat to hear our story. The rally was put together in a hurry so the crowd was thin, but the media responded in force, with CBC and Global doing an extensive shoot as well as interviews by The Leader Post and others. Keenan, who was in French Immersion in Whitehorse, even did an interview in French. Again members of the audience approached Ginny and I with their stories and gave thanks for spreading the word across Canada. One elderly woman said she had to battle against the thought of taking her life every day since she was 14. I learned we can't please everyone though. An elderly man in a faded ball cap approached me angrily and said, "Do you know what I was looking for? I was looking for a denunciation of psychiatry: Freud was an atheist, didn't you know that?"

As the lights go out in the trailer park, we study the changing weather for tomorrow and strategize distances.