A high percentage of Saskatchewan people have Ukrainian ancestry. The "Peasants in the Sheepskin Coats" were part of Canada's drive to settle the west more than 100 years ago. Most of them came from Western Ukraine which at that time was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. They were not entirely welcomed by the English speaking people who were already settled there as they were "different", which of course, was bad. They became the butt of a great many "Ukrainian Jokes" (see also Newfie jokes, Polish jokes, and if you are Russian, Chukchy jokes).
It took a couple of generations but they are now a proud part of the province. As former Premier Roy Romanow remarked there really are only two kinds of people in Saskatchewan - Ukrainians and those who wish they were Ukrainians. But the jokes remain and the Ukrainian community have adopted them and wear them as a badge of pride.
The Jews have a Wailing Wall in Jerusalem but in Saskatchewan the Ukrainians only have a Krydor.
Two guys from a small town in Saskatchewan painted up an old car to look like the General Lee. They are known as the Ukes of Hafford.
I always learn something new, when I visit your blog! Thank you for taking the time to enrich our minds!
ReplyDelete~AM
Let me see we've had the Irish, Chinese, German, Polish, Vietnamese, Russian, Etheopian, and now the Mexican migrations. It works out okay as long as they don't all migrate to one place at the same time.
ReplyDeleteAM, my mind is full of amazing trivia...or is that a maze of trivia or is that just full of it... At any rate, I am glad you enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteD, immigrants are how a country grows and prospers. If we didn't want them, maybe we should have been more careful over the last 100 years when we were enriching our countries at the expense of the others.
My son gets credit for telling me those jokes which I had not heard before.
Only is Saskatchewan, you say.
ReplyDeleteDreadful pity.
And why did you leave out our esteemed former Governor General, the late Ray Hnatyshyn? (In the land of Bear, that would be a major faxu-paws.)
RB because I couldn't spell it?
ReplyDeleteI believe this was the web page you referred to on the oil spill.
ReplyDeletehttp://motherjones.com/files/2010-05-17_Letter_to_BP.pdf
Makes me wonder who's leading whom?