Thanks, Smokey. Indeed miners and farmers and others: lumberjacks, open pit miners, truckers, railroad people: here THEY built the place. Even today Canada has a few farms or ranches that are pretty big. The Douglas Ranch for example has about 800 square miles of territory.

"With 500,000 acres in the Thompson Nicola region of British Columbia, Douglas Lake Ranch is Canada's largest working cattle ranch. It's a short four hour drive (320 Km or 192 miles) northeast of Vancouver."

Some Saskatchewan farms are HUGE.

64,903,830 acres of Saskatchewan are under cultivation: wheat, barley, rye, corn (maize), oats, canola, lentils, etc.

The town I live in depends quite a bit on a pulp and paper mill, lumber mill, some coal mines and the timber industry. Oil was going great until about five months back. It's a shame that so many people lost jobs. They have families to feed or otherwise look out for. I hear you and agree. These people are the backbone of this place.

As a btw, I have never taken note of skin colours or religions, even languages. That just isn't the way people should be judged.

As for my grandfather, he died in 1960. I have missed him a great deal for most of my life. A one-in-a-million kinda guy. Thank you very much for your kind words, Smokey.