'She's like your favourite Grandma': Sask. residents look back on Queen Elizabeth's visits
Saskatchewan residents are looking back with fond memories of past royal visits as Queen Elizabeth marks her platinum jubilee. The Queen has visited the province more than almost any other place in the nation.
Saskatchewan people love Queen Elizabeth and apparently she loves Saskatchewan.
“The Queen has been to Regina more times than any other city in Canada, except of course Ottawa. She’s been here five times,” said former Saskatchewan Chief of Protocol, Michael Jackson.
The Queen’s first visit to Saskatchewan came in 1959, as she crisscrossed the nation by train, covering 15,000 miles over 45 days. She returned in 1973 to help the RCMP celebrate its Centennial and returned five years later. That’s when Michael Jackson became involved with co-ordinating royal visits to Saskatchewan.
“She was wonderful to work for,” said Jackson. “Of all the official visitors I’ve had, I would guess in my 25 years of Chief of Protocol, the Queen was the most exciting to have but she was also a very kind and very thoughtful person. She’s like your favourite grandma when you’re with her.”
The Queen returned in 1987 and 2005. That final visit centred around Indigenous culture and included a stop at the First Nations University of Canada where Eber Hampton was president.
“I was trying last night to remember last night her speech because it was such a beautiful speech about the government to government relationship between the Crown and First Nations with the treaty signing that established that relationship,” said Hampton.
It was a visit also marked by unrelenting rain.
“So the Queen was using the horse drawn landau brought out by the RCMP for the occasion. They drove through the pouring rain to the legislative building and she refused to have the top put down. She was going to sit out there in the rain with her transparent umbrella and waved at the crowd,” said Jackson.
Thousands of residents are looking back with fond memories on this Platinum Jubilee, grateful for the times that Queen Elizabeth shared with the people of the province.
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