On Jan. 5, Regina announced that the excruciatingly adorable black-capped chickadee would become its official bird. For context, Regina has recently pushed to be recognized as a “bird friendly” city, which sort of put some impetus behind the contest. A great many birds were nominated and reduced to a field of six, with the “super adaptable, feisty and cute” chickadee winning with 8,700 out of 21,000 votes cast. My first response to this declaration? I want that. Not necessarily the black-capped chickadee, to be clear, but an official birdie for Saskatoon. Maybe an animal and a berry and a flower and a tree and a dinosaur too. Okay, I’m not attached to the dinosaur idea. Did you know, though, that Saskatchewan has an official dinosaur? Actually, that’s not precisely accurate; it has a provincial fossil. Anyway, you will not be surprised to hear it is the Tyrannosaurus Rex, considering the rather famous “Scotty” was found in the Frenchman River Valley in 1991. As usual, I digress.

So, I popped a bit of a poll up on Facebook, asking my peeps (see what I did there? Peeps!? Birds peep, right?) which bird they would choose for Saskatoon’s own. I was horrified by the lack of response, to be honest. Am I the only one who CARES about this? Whatever. The most votes (by far) went to the pelican, in honour, perhaps, of the hoohaw these great white birds cause around here as harbingers of spring. Other votes went to the magpie, crow, robin, wren and meadowlark. Were I to vote by name, I would go with that last option. So pretty. (Specifically, it would be the Western meadowlark. Just FYI.) My husband weighed in with the mallard duck, one of which, in his opinion, viewed himself as a Peregrine falcon by perching precariously on our roof. We named him Perry. I am positive I have mentioned this more than once. It was kind of fun, watching this duck. I think, however, despite our attachment to the pelican, perhaps we should choose a bird that hangs around these parts a bit more?

“Unlike a lot of the other birds in the contest, the black-capped chickadee stays around Regina 12 months of the year showing its heartiness and resourcefulness, just like the people of Regina,” said Ryan Fisher, curator of vertebrate zoology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and defender of the chickadee in the contest, as quoted in the Regina Leader-Post. He has a point. We should also probably avoid the sharp-tailed grouse, which is the provincial bird. Might cause some confusion. It already did on my Facebook post. Saskatchewan also has an official flower, the western red lily; an official tree, the white birch; and an official animal, the white-tailed deer, among other “emblems of nature.” Our mineral is potash. Go figure. Oh! And our official sport is . . . curling.

So, what do you think? Should we have a little contest, see who votes? Might cheer us up. I mean, first we had the weirdest, warmest, snow-free winter maybe ever (I can only think of one other year that could contend for the title, and I am not young) and then the significant shock of a polar vortex I can only describe as . . . wait, I can’t print that. We definitely need to establish a certain berry as our own. It has our name on it. It is the Saskatchewan berry, but in this particular case, I don’t care about doubling up. In other news to me, did you know the Saskatoon berry is on Saskatoon’s flag? Did you know Saskatoon HAS a flag? I don’t know who, or which organization, should run such a contest but obviously I nominate the city. Like they don’t have enough to do down there, but whatever. They’d have to decide on officialdom anyway. I hereby offer my services as communications director of this contest, should they need any help. (I may be kidding. I’m not sure.)

As to our official Saskatoon animal . . . I have recently thought about the influx of large bunny rabbits (I understand they are actually hares, but “bunny” is cuter) as offering some direction. After all, that’s the animal I see the most. Or the beaver, perhaps? Considering the number of puppy dogs I see daily when out walking, maybe we should just settle for the domestic canine. Ha. I mean, does everyone in this city own a dog!? And then there’s the question of the flower. I am useless at flowers and couldn’t possibly tell you which are native to these parts and which are not. I am personally very fond of crocuses. But fair warning: the first person to suggest the dandelion gets a twominute eyeroll from me.

-Joanne Paulson