New Saskatchewanderer Zane Buchanan is ready to hit the road and he’s bringing someone along with him.
His dog, Stedman, will be joining him on his province-wide adventures in 2019.
“He’s going to keep me sane and keep me from talking to myself in the car,” Buchanan told CTV Morning Live on Monday.
He’s had the dog for about four years and has always been able to bring him along to work. His time as Saskatchewanderer will be no different.
Buchanan grew up in White City and moved away for school. After developing his theatre and communication background in Toronto and Vancouver, he’s looking forward to spending the next year in his home province.
“(I’m) super excited to be home for the first time in a bit and to have kind of a clear perspective of the province, look at it through a new lens,” he said.
Buchanan wants to take advantage of the fact that he’s been away from Saskatchewan for the past few years and plans to use that to fuel his adventures.
“This is how it looks from the perspective of an outsider,” he said.
He also wants to change things up by looking more at the people of Saskatchewan, rather than just the places.
“I know that a lot of the natural wanderers kind of brings in audiences to the Instagram and stuff like that, but my motivation is to put emphasis on different groups of people and end the negative stigma that exists around Saskatchewan that is untrue,” he said.
He plans to show off the province’s diversity, as well as showcase Saskatchewan’s Indigenous and LGBTQ communities.
Buchanan is already planning for the future and hopes to make it to northern Saskatchewan at some point this year. He’s also ready to find somewhere new while out on the road.
“The towns that I’ve never heard of are the ones that are most fascinating to me,” he said. “The ones I’m going to drive through and find out are hidden gems.”
The Saskatchewanderer program is an inter-ministerial partnership that involves Tourism Saskatchewan and the Ministeries of Agriculture, Trade and Export Development and Parks, Culture and Sport.
Buchanan’s adventures can be found at www.saskatchewanderer.ca.
