by Ruth Griffiths

On this day in 1957, the “man from Prince Albert”, John George Diefenbaker, became Canada’s 13th prime minister. He was one of Canada’s longest serving Members of Parliament and held the highest percentage of seats won in the House of Commons.

Diefenbaker was born in Neustadt, Ont., on Sept. 18, 1895; he died Aug.16, 1979 in Ottawa. Throughout his long, hard-working career as a lawyer and a politician his slogan was “One Canada.” While in office, he championed the Canadian Bill of Rights, appointed the first female cabinet minister and Indigenous senator, welcomed the first Chinese-Canadian and Ukrainian-Canadian members of parliament, and extended the vote to First Nations people in Canada.

After serving in the army during the First World War, he completed his law degree at University of Saskatchewan. He was called to the Saskatchewan Bar in 1919. His first law office was in Wakaw. He moved to Prince Albert in 1924.

According to the Diefenbaker Canada Centre, Diefenbaker was “a champion of the average Canadian. An articulate speaker and supporter of civil rights, Diefenbaker was a passionate defense lawyer before he turned to his attention to politics.” He ran federally for Prince Albert in 1925 and 1926; provincially in 1929 and 1938; and for mayor of Prince Albert in 1933. He lost each time. In June 1939, Diefenbaker was nominated for the federal riding of Lake Centre. In March 1940, he was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament. He was re-elected for Lake Centre in 1945 and 1949.

Diefenbaker was elected MP for P.A. in 1953 and soon became leader of Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. In January 1957, Diefenbaker took his place as Leader of the Official Opposition.

By June his party formed a minority government with 40.9% of popular vote, winning 112 seats to 105 for St. Laurent’s Liberals; 25 CCF; 19 Social Credit; four others. It was the first Conservative victory in 27 years. Diefenbaker consolidated his position in March 1958 with a huge majority of 208 seats; the highest number held by a single party in Canada to that time.

Diefenbaker was succeeded as Prime Minister by Liberal Lester B. Pearson in 1963. Diefenbaker continued to serve as “the man from Prince Albert” until his death in 1979.

by Ruth Griffiths

A friend found a dead bird while cleaning the winter debris from her back alley. The large bird had a leg tag and she wondered what to do with it.

My friend was referred to the Canadian Wildlife Service which is responsible for issuing bird banding permits in Canada.

According to the Canadian Wildlife Federation: “If you find a dead bird with a band on its leg or spot a live bird with a neck collar, wing tag, or other marker, send the band or report the marker to the Canadian Wildlife Service’s Bird Banding Office by calling 1-800-327-2263. Knowing where bands are found helps scientists identify the habitats used by birds.“

I learned about bird banding from Alan Smith at Last Mountain Bird Observatory (LMBO). Smith wrote the book, literally, about Saskatchewan birds. His Atlas of Saskatchewan Birds is a compendium of bird sightings in the province.

At LMBO small migratory birds are caught in mist nets and quickly retrieved to avoid stressing the bird. Before being released they are weighed, measured and a small numbered band is attached to their leg.

Environment and Climate Change Canada says

The North American Bird Banding Program relies on the public to report their observations or recoveries of bird bands and other bird markers to the Bird Banding Office. These data help scientists and wildlife managers better understand, monitor and conserve migratory bird populations by providing information on the distribution and movement of species. Although over 1.2 million birds are banded in the US and Canada each year, only about 10 percent of game bird bands (and less than one percent of songbird bands) are recovered.

If you see a marked bird you may contribute to the program by reporting birds online at reportband.gov or call toll-free 1-800-327-BAND (2263) to leave a message.

The more information you can provide when recording information from a banded bird, the more likely the individual bird can be identified or marking project determined. Taking a photograph of the bird or bird band can improve accuracy of reporting. Do not try to capture birds or remove bands and markers from live birds.

Information to include:

• number sequence on the metal band
• other markers (if applicable) such as neck collar, wing tag, web tag, colour band, leg flag, geolocator (including alphanumeric code, colour and location of each marker)
• species, sex and age of the bird (if known)
• how the band number was obtained (bird watching, shot, found dead, injured, or trapped)
• condition of the bird (alive, dead, in captivity)
• date the band number was obtained and exact location
• any other information (behaviour, other birds, time of day, etc.)
• if you are unsure of any bands or did not see all parts of both legs clearly, indicate this in the report
• your name, address, telephone number and email address
  
  After your information has been submitted, you will receive a certificate of appreciation which will tell you the species of bird, where and when it was banded, its age, whether it was male or female, and who banded it. We will tell the bander where and when the bird or band was found and its condition.

by Ruth Griffiths

The “golden years” have become much more comfortable for Canadian senior citizens during the past century. Don’t get me wrong… old age isn’t for sissies. But financial security is less of an issue for today’s elders than it was for their grandparents.

At Confederation, retirement was not yet considered an entitlement of seniors because the participation of the elderly in the industrial system had not yet been fully recognized. Since so many of the aged continued to work as hard as younger people until the end of their lives, those who fell into destitution were not treated very differently from other poor people.

The aged poor were offered the same degree of assistance as the younger poor. They were either given emergency relief only, in amounts small enough to strongly encourage them to find work, or a place in the poorhouse, which was also designed to be extremely uncomfortable so that the poor would see it as a very last resort. Around 1900, for the first time, the aged were identified as a distinct group among the poor and new social reform movements began questioning the appropriateness of their treatment.

Most Canadians were farmers until The Dirty Thirties drove them off the land. Up until then, everyone worked on the farm and older people were cared for at home. When families moved away from the farm, the strain was often too much for wage earners. Old people were left destitute.

In May 1927, the House of Commons approved an Old Age Pension Plan for those over 70 with demonstrable need. Applicants had to prove that their children could not support them in order to be considered for a pension. The first Old Age Pension was $20 per month and was available to British subjects only. Status Indians were not eligible.

By 1951, the new Old Age Security Program offered $40 per month to those Canadians 70 and older without a means test. First Nations people were included in the program.

The Canada Pension Plan was established in 1966, to allow workers to save for their retirement. Flexible retirement was introduced in 1987, allowing Canada Pension Plan contributors the option of receiving a pension as early as the age of 60.

Still, most seniors lived in poverty. The Guaranteed Income Supplement was introduced in 1967. The Spouse’s Allowance was introduced in 1975 and the Widowed Spouse’s Allowance was introduced in 1985.

Better inflation protection was put in place. From 1973, Old Age Security benefits increased quarterly based on changes in the Consumer Price Index.

In 2000, all Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan benefits and obligations were extended to same-sex and common-law relationships.

The 2021 federal budget proposed to provide a one-time $500 benefit this year to those aged 75 and older (as of June 2022). OAS payments are proposed to increase by 10% beginning in July 2022.

Starting in April 2023, the age of eligibility for OAS will gradually increase from 65 to 67 over six years, with full implementation by January 2029. This change will affect people born in 1958 and later.

By the time the government pension for Canadian seniors reaches its centenary who knows how much else it will have changed?

by Ruth Griffiths

Victoria Day weekend is traditionally garden planting time. However, many people look not only at the calendar, but also at the moon, for gardening guidance.

This year, the full moon is on May 27 so that should make it a great time to plant vegetables.

According to Canadian Farmers’ Almanac, gardening by the phases of the moon is a technique that can speed the germination of seeds by working with the forces of nature.

The theory is that plants respond to the same gravitational pull that affects the ocean tides, which alternately stimulates root and leaf growth. Seeds sprout more quickly, plants grow vigorously and at an optimum rate, harvests are larger and they don’t go to seed as fast. This method has been practiced by many for hundreds of years and is a perfect compliment to organic gardening because it is more effective in non-chemically treated soil.

The lunar phase controls the amount of moisture in the soil. This moisture is at its peak at the time of the new moon and the full moon. The sun and moon are lined up with earth. Just as the moon pulls the tides in the oceans, it also pulls upon the subtle bodies of water, causing moisture to rise in the earth, which encourages germination and growth. Seeds will absorb more water at the time of the full moon.

I’ll get my root crops in the ground on the long weekend, but I’ll likely hold off planting hot weather crops such as beans and squash. The cold weeks we experienced after Easter have me feeling a bit nervous about putting out tender plants such as tomatoes until after the full moon on May 26.

Incidentally, the May full moon will be a Supermoon which means it is a full moon which occurs with the moon at or near its closest approach to Earth. The full moon in May is sometimes called the Flower Moon. The technical term for a Supermoon is perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. In astronomy, the term “syzygy” refers to the straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies. Higher tides are predicted at the Supermoon, so soil moisture should be adequate for seeding.

Besides looking to the moon, I also look to the native plants when deciding my garden planting. In this area, when the aspen trees are leafing out, it’s time to finish seeding the garden.

So get out there and get a little dirt under your fingernails. And while you’re planting, give a little nod to the man in the moon … he’s smiling at you.

by Ruth Griffiths

It’s happening again — a recurring dream about green shoots bursting from the soil. It’s spring and I’m excited about getting out into the garden!

For me, gardening is the perfect combination of physical activity, mental gymnastics and spirituality. It connects me to the earth through all my senses: the smell of the soil; the sound of the birds and the wind; the heat of the sun on my face.

After a long, cold winter, I look forward to getting outdoors to use my large muscles: raking, staking, digging, carrying and kneeling.

I enjoy the planning process that begins months before — taking an inventory of my seeds; buying new seeds; starting tender plants in rows of tiny pots.

Finally the big day arrives, sometime around Victoria Day. I space out rows with sticks and twine and begin to plant the first crops: carrots, spinach, potatoes, lettuce, beets. The tender crops like squash, corn and beans will come later when the soil is fully warmed. Last to go out are the plants started indoors: tomatoes, peppers and petunias.

Increasingly, people my age are giving up their yards and gardens to live in condominiums. There’s only room for a pot or two in which to grow things.

Many people would rather let someone else do the dirty work of growing vegetables, but for me, that’s just the point. I enjoy getting some dirt under my fingernails. I love the process of nurturing tiny shoots and watching them grow into productive plants. I feel proud and thankful when I wander out to the garden to pick a plateful of greens for a supper salad. I glow when I serve my guests a meal grown entirely in my back yard … including the raspberry, rhubarb or apple dessert!

If you haven’t started your own plants or want some new perennials, you might find what you want at the plant sale on May 14. 1-4 pm. at Calvary United Church, 114 25th St. E. The sale will be held as public health regulations permit. Plants, both annual and perennial, will be priced. Proceeds go to the church.

by Ruth Griffiths

Mother’s Day will be the 24th anniversary of my column in Rural Roots. At an estimated 50 columns per year, that is 1,200 columns I have written for Prince Albert Daily Herald.

Rural Roots was created as a weekly news magazine in 1990 and distributed free to homes in North Central Saskatchewan. It’s an area that I know well, having grown up in Tisdale.

I moved to Prince Albert as a bride in 1969 and worked for a year in the lab at Victoria Union Hospital, before returning to classes in Saskatoon to finish a Bachelor of Science degree. I interned at both of the Prince Albert hospitals and became a Registered Laboratory Technologist. My first job was in the lab at Prince Albert Medical Clinic. In 1975 I left behind my science career to become a stay-at-home parent.

I started work in 1981 at the Daily Herald as the Women’s Editor. I thought it would be for just a year or two, but I ended up working 29 years for the Herald.

I moved to being Assistant City Editor, then City Editor and finally Rural Roots Editor in 1997. I was laid off in May 2010, along with eight other people, when editorial and composing functions were centralized in Moose Jaw.

After my husband died in 2006, I became a certified fitness instructor. My first regular class was with seniors at the Heritage Centre. It’s an age group with whom I feel a special kinship.

Since 2009, I have been the instructor for the Easy Adult Fitness program offered by the City of Prince Albert at the Margo Fournier Centre. I also teach chair-assisted yoga at Abbeyfield House.

You can see that the continuous thread has been writing this column, which I continue to do from home. Writing this column has been a special privilege. I hope to be able to continue it for years to come.

by Ruth Griffiths

I live near a city park and I love it. My husband and I chose to build a home on this site partly because of its proximity to the park. I’ve loved living near this park since 1975, but the pandemic has made me more grateful than ever for the park.

A year ago, when we were in deep lockdown, I was trying to provide some homeschooling for my granddaughter.

Her teacher had sent us a schedule but the only thing that really sparked my granddaughter’s interest was going outside …often that was a walk in the park. The snow was piled high and she made believe she was a mountain lion, scaling the icy peaks and growling from lofty heights. Getting out into the frosty fresh air helped to clear her mind, and mine too.

We were there for exercise but it was also a wonderful break for us both. It’s easy to get on each other’s nerves when you are seeing the same people and doing the same things within four walls, day after day after endless day.

Yesterday I heard someone talk about their “mental health walk” and I could instantly empathize. Walking increases metabolism, pumps fresh oxygen to the brain and provides needed exercise for our skeletal muscles. Walking also boosts our immune system… an important benefit during a pandemic.

Perhaps most importantly, walking boosts our mood.

I recall walking home from a long day of work. It was uphill, it was hot and dusty. Passing cars exhausted gases that polluted my lungs. And yet, I was euphoric. With the sun on my face and the wind in my hair I felt fully alive! Walking does that.

Walking near trees and grass is even more beneficial than walking on concrete. The Druids had it right; forests have the ability to heal us body and soul.

According to New York State Department of Conservation, exposure to forests and trees:
• boosts the immune system.
• lowers blood pressure.
• reduces stress.
• improves mood.
• increases ability to focus.
• accelerates recovery from surgery or illness.
• increases energy level.
• improves sleep.

Prince Albert has some wonderful green spaces, large and small. During this pandemic we owe it ourselves to get out and enjoy a walk in the park.

by Ruth Griffiths

I enjoyed touring the Prince Albert Historical Museum following a guided walk on the Rotary Trail beside the North Saskatchewan River.  A display of old business machines elicited memories of compact portable typewriters that my friend and I had used as young adults. During these Covid times we spend a lot of time using electronic keyboards, but we rarely think about how the standard keyboard came to be.

The first mechanical machine for writing letters was introduced 300 years ago. The typewriter was invented and reinvented several times. By about 1910, a more or less standardized version had emerged. Electric typewriters were introduced about a century ago but when I started work at The Daily Herald in 1981, we were still using manual typewriters in the newsroom. The noise was deafening! We switched to an electronic typesetting machine and soon after that personal computers, linked to a common memory storage area.

The most common keyboard configuration today is QWERTY. The name comes from the first six keys on the top letter row of the keyboard from left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The arrangement of letters is neither logical nor intuitive. In fact, the letters are arranged on the keyboard so they slow down the typist. Typewriter operators were able to strike the keys so quickly that the type bars became wedged together as they struck the typewriter ribbon in rapid succession.

In an episode of the TV series Downton Abbey, a maid upgrades her lot in life by learning to type. She becomes a typewriter. (“Typewriter” that time applied both to the machine and the operator of it.)

Operating business machines offered employment for a whole generation of women around the middle of the last century. For example, my mother was fresh out of high school when she was trained by an Edmonton gas company to operate a comptometer… the first key-driven mechanical calculator. By the 1960s, electronic calculators were already replacing manual calculators, but by then, women were well established in business offices everywhere.

I wouldn’t like to go back to using a manual typewriter with its messy ribbons, carbon paper and correcting fluid. But at least you weren’t squinting at a screen all day when you used one of those old clunkers.

by Ruth Griffiths

Winter seemed darker and longer than usual this year. I’m hungry for the warmth of the sun and the growth that longer days bring. The sunlight itself boosts my spirits, but now is also the season of the “spring tonic.”

Traditionally, spring tonics are concoctions made with early herbs and plants that help cleanse the body and supply it with important vitamins and minerals. In days gone by, when people ate mainly dried and salted foods all winter, the first fresh shoots provided much-needed nutrition. With fresh vegetables now available year round, the spring tonic is no longer necessary. But many people still swear by the cleansing nature of certain plants and herbs. It’s a bit like spring-cleaning for the body.

Many of the first plants of spring — nettles, violets, dandelion greens, asparagus, rhubarb — can be taken as a tonic. The danger, of course, is that eating a little of it can be good, but eating a lot can be harmful. Eating too much green stuff all at once can be like putting the cows onto new grass … you’re going to get the runs. Or worse. Remember that “natural” does not mean it cannot be harmful.

In spring. when I’m hungry for anything green, I harvest the first dandelion shoots that pop up in my yard. I don’t use herbicides, so I am confident they are not contaminated. Nevertheless, I double-wash the spiny dandelion greens because they always seem to be gritty.

You can substitute dandelion greens for spinach in almost any recipe where they will be cooked. I’ve eaten dandelion greens raw in a purchased salad mix, but the greens I harvest at home are much stronger in flavour.

Dandelions are an amazing source of Vitamin A and Vitamin K.

They are also high in fibre, producing a laxative effect. So go easy on your portion size the first time you tuck into a plate of stir-fried dandelions.

by Ruth Griffiths

April 10 is the anniversary of the breakup of the rock group that defined my generation — The Beatles. Although the Fab Four were together for only a decade, their influence remains strong.

On April 10, 1970, Paul McCartney announced the end of the band known as the Beatles. The band officially split on Dec. 31, 1970.
Musicians John Lennon and Paul McCartney played together in the late 1950s as The Quarrymen. With George Harrison they formed The Silver Beatles in 1959. In 1962, Ringo Starr became their drummer and they dropped the Silver to be known as the Beatles.

The Beatles were unique in many ways. They were the first British band to write their own songs and music. They are the only group in recording history to have 20 songs reach No. 1.

The Beatles recorded 214 songs from 1962 to 1970. Their first UK single was Love Me Do. Their 1964 song, I Want to Hold Your Hand, sparked Beatlemania in the North America and the band became an international success.

The first vinyl records in my youth were children’s 45s, followed by Elvis Presley, if your parents would allow them in the house. Some people went so far as to burn Elvis records because his swivel hips were too suggestive. (What would they think of Lady Gaga?) The Beatles music was more popular in LPs. The group’s albums include A Hard Day’s Night (1964), Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). The Beatles’ last album recorded was Abbey Road in 1969. It was the end of an era.
Of the four famous Liverpool lads only two remain, McCartney, 78, and Starr, 80.

I never owned a Beatles album and I never went to a concert. My main connection was through television. I remember well their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show — in suits no less.

Several classmates did an air band version of the Beatles for the high school variety show. Their performance was almost cancelled, because even in 1966, the Beatles were still controversial. Imagine!