Lloydminster
—  City  —
City of Lloydminster
Border marker in Lloydminster
Flag of Lloydminster Flag Official seal of Lloydminster Seal
Location of Lloydminster in Alberta and Saskatchewan
Coordinates: 53°16.7′N 110°0.3′W / 53.2783°N 110.005°W / 53.2783; -110.005Coordinates: 53°16.7′N 110°0.3′W / 53.2783°N 110.005°W / 53.2783; -110.005
Country	Canada
Provinces	Alberta Saskatchewan
Regions	Central Alberta, West Central Saskatchewan
Census divisions	10 (AB), 17 (SK)
Pre-amalg. [1] incorporation  - SK Village    - AB Village  - SK Town	November 25, 1903  (then within the NWT) July 6, 1906 April 1, 1907
Amalgamation [1]  - AB/SK Town	May 22, 1930
Post-amalg. [1] incorporation  - AB/SK City	January 1, 1958
Government[2]
• Mayor	Jeff Mulligan
• Governing body	Lloydminster City Council T.J. Altman Alan Cayford Herb Flieger Allan Park Larry Sauer Rob Saunders
• City Manager	Glenn Carroll
• MP	Leon Benoit (AB, CPC) Gerry Ritz (SK, CPC)
• MLA	Lloyd Snelgrove (AB, PC) Tim McMillan (SK, SP)
Area (2011)[3][4]
• Total	41.53 km2 (16.03 sq mi)
Elevation	669 m (2,195 ft)
Population (2011)[3][4]
• Total	27,804
• Density	669.5/km2 (1,734/sq mi)
Time zone	MST (UTC−7)
• Summer (DST)	MDT (UTC−6)
Postal code span	T9V (AB), S9V (SK)
Area code(s)	306, 587, 780
Website	City of Lloydminster

Lloydminster is a Canadian city which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan.^[5] Unlike most such cases (such as Texarkana), Lloydminster is not a pair of twin cities on opposite sides of a border which merely share the same name, but is actually incorporated as a single city with a single municipal administration.

Geography[link]

The provincial border runs north to south, falling directly on 50th Avenue (Meridian Avenue) in the centre of Lloydminster. Addresses east of 50th Avenue are considered to be in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan and addresses west of 50th Avenue are considered to be in Lloydminster, Alberta. The city is bordered by the County of Vermilion River, Alberta, on the west, the Rural Municipality (R.M.) of Brittania No. 502, Saskatchewan, on the northeast and the R.M. of Wilton No. 72, Saskatchewan, on the southeast.

Lloydminster is not the only city that straddles a Canadian provincial border. The city of Flin Flon, Manitoba, has a small section that is actually located within Saskatchewan. In the National Capital Region, Ottawa, Ontario, and Gatineau, Quebec, form a single metropolitan area, but they do not form a biprovincial city because there are separate municipalities in each province.

Lloydminster's distinctive situation is reflected in other legal matters, including its time zone. Alberta law requires the use of daylight saving time, while Saskatchewan does not observe daylight saving time. Lloydminster's charter allows it to follow Alberta's use of daylight saving time on both sides of the provincial border; this places the city, and the observing surrounding area, in the Mountain Standard Time Zone during the winter, and synchronizes clocks with those of Alberta. During the summer, Alberta is on Mountain daylight time, and Saskatchewan on Central standard time, which are both UTC−06. Lloydminster follows the Saskatchewan schedule when voting in municipal elections.

The provincial line divides the city in two aspects related to communications. Telephones on the Saskatchewan side are assigned to area code 306, the area code reserved for that province, while land lines on the Alberta side have a number with a 780 area code, one of the area codes assigned to Alberta. Similarly, Saskatchewan addresses have a postal code with a forward sortation area designation (first three characters) of "S9V", and addresses in Alberta have postal codes beginning with "T9V". All postal codes in Canada beginning with the letter "S" are assigned to Saskatchewan, and those beginning with "T" belong to Alberta.

Lloydminster was not exempted from recent anti-smoking legislation passed by Saskatchewan's legislature. Citizens responded by initiating a referendum against the wishes of the mayor, as permitted in the charter, which resulted in the enactment of a city-wide anti-smoking bylaw. The matter was made a moot point when Alberta enacted its own anti-smoking legislation, which was the solution that the mayor and council preferred.

History[link]

Barr colonists 1903

Intended to be an exclusively British Utopian settlement centred around the idea of sobriety, the town was founded in 1903 by the Barr Colonists, who came directly from the United Kingdom.^[6] At a time when the area was still part of the Northwest Territories, the town was located astride the Fourth Meridian of the Dominion Land Survey. This meridian was intended to coincide with 110° west longitude although the imperfect surveying methods of the time led to the meridian being placed a few hundred meters west of this longitude.

While provincehood of some sort was seen as inevitable by 1903, it had been widely expected that only one province would eventually be created instead of two. The colonists were not aware of the federal government's deep-rooted opposition to the creation of a single province and thus had no way of knowing that the Fourth Meridian was under consideration as a future provincial boundary. Had they known, it is very unlikely they would have sited the new settlement on the future border.

The town was named for George Lloyd (Anglican Bishop of Saskatchewan), a strong opponent of non-British immigration to Canada. During a nearly disastrous immigration journey, which was badly planned and conducted,^[7] he distinguished himself with the colonists and replaced the Barr Colony's leader and namesake Isaac Montgomery Barr during the colonists' journey to the eventual townsite.

When the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905, the Fourth Meridian was selected as the border, bisecting the town. Caught by surprise, Lloydminster residents petitioned for the new border to be revised so as to encompass the entire town within Saskatchewan, without success.

For the next quarter century, Lloydminster remained two separate towns with two separate municipal administrations. Finally, in 1930 the provincial governments agreed to amalgamate the towns into a single town under shared jurisdiction. The provinces, again jointly, reincorporated Lloydminster as a city in 1958.

Commemorating Lloydminster's distinctive bi-provincial status, a monument consisting of four 100-foot survey markers was erected in 1994 near the city's downtown core.^[8]

Although the majority of Lloydminster's population once lived in Saskatchewan, that ratio has long since been reversed; in the Canada 2011 Census, nearly two-thirds of the city's population lived in Alberta. In 2000, the city hall and municipal offices were re-located from Saskatchewan to Alberta.

Since Lloydminster's founders were attempting to create a utopian, temperate society, alcohol was not available in Lloydminster for the first few years after its founding. A bylaw prohibiting nude entertainment was created in 2002, although events like oil wrestling and wet T-shirt contests are still allowed.^[9]

Demographics[link]

The flags of Saskatchewan and Alberta flanking the flag of Canada in Lloydminster

In the 2011 Census, the City of Lloydminster had a population of 27,804 living in 10,613 of its 11,453 total dwellings, a 15.7% change from its 2006 population of 24,028. With a land area of 41.53 km² (16.03 sq mi), it had a population density of 669.49/km² (1,733.98/sq mi) in 2011.^[3][4] Of this total, 18,032 people lived on the Alberta side and 9,772 lived on the Saskatchewan side.

According to the Canada 2006 Census, the population was 24,028, of which 15,910 (66.0%) lived in Alberta^[31] and 8,118 (34.0%) lived in Saskatchewan.^[32] According to the 2001 federal census, the total population of the city was 20,988, of which 13,148 (62.6%) resided in Alberta while 7,840 (37.4%) lived in Saskatchewan.

From 2001 to 2006, the population rose 21.0 per cent on the Alberta side^[31] while the Saskatchewan side rose by 3.5 per cent.^[32] From 2006 to 2011, however, the population rose 20.4 per cent on the Saskatchewan side,^[33] compared to 13.3 per cent on the Alberta side.^[34]

The two sides of the city rank 12th in Alberta and 10th in Saskatchewan in municipal population. If the city were entirely in one province or the other, Lloydminster's population would rank ninth in Alberta and fifth in Saskatchewan.

There are substantial demographic differences between the populations on each side of the border, with the population on the Saskatchewan side being substantially younger; the median age on the Saskatchewan side is 26.6,^[32] nearly seven years less than the median age of 33.2 on the Alberta side. Even when combining the median ages for both sides of the city, Lloydminster has the youngest median age in all of Canada.^[31][35] Also, the specific age group of 20–24 is much more concentrated on the Saskatchewan side. The two sides of the city have virtually identical numbers of people in that age group (1,220 in Saskatchewan,^[32] 1,230 in Alberta^[31]) even though the total population on the Alberta side is nearly twice that of the Saskatchewan side.

The census agglomeration of Lloydminster includes both parts of the city, as well as the rural municipality of Wilton No. 472, the town of Lashburn, Saskatchewan, and the village of Marshall, Saskatchewan.

More than 8% of residents identified themselves as aboriginal at the time of the 2006 census.^[36]

About 94% of residents identified English as their first language. More than 1.4% of the population identified French as their first language, while 0.8% identified German, 0.7% identified Ukrainian, and 0.5% identified Cree as their first language learned. The next most common languages were Chinese and Spanish at about 0.3% each.^[37]

More than 78 percent of residents identified as Christian at the time of the 2001 census, while over 18 percent indicated that they had no religious affiliation. For specific denominations Statistics Canada found that 31% of residents identified as Roman Catholic, and 44% Protestants of which, 18% identified with the United Church of Canada, more than 7% identified as Anglican, about 5% identified as Lutheran, almost 3% identified as Pentecostal, about 2% identified as Baptist, and just over 1% of the population identified as Eastern Orthodox.^[38]

Economy and taxation[link]

Oil and Gas plaque at the Barr Colony Heritage Cultural Centre

The local economy is driven primarily by the petroleum industry. Agriculture remains an important economic activity, although many farmers in the area have been sustained financially by lease payments resulting from oil wells drilled on their land.^{[citation needed]} The Husky Lloydminster Refinery is also located in the community.

Lloydminster's bi-provincial status has resulted in special provisions regarding provincial taxation within the city limits. The Saskatchewan side of the city is exempt from that province's sales tax, preventing businesses located there from being placed at a disadvantage relative to businesses in Alberta, which has no provincial sales tax. There is no exemption for provincial income tax, which is based solely on the taxpayer's province of residence. Other differences surrounding interprovincial costs are reflected within the treatment of automobile insurance, and housing taxes. For example, a driver under age 25 who lives on the Alberta side will pay approximately 2-3 times the average amount required of a Saskatchewan driver of the same age and sex.

Politics[link]

Residents on the Alberta side are in the electoral district of Vegreville—Wainwright for elections to the federal House of Commons, and Vermilion-Lloydminster for elections to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Residents in Saskatchewan are in Battlefords—Lloydminster federally, and Lloydminster for the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.

Education[link]

Elementary and secondary schools on both sides of the border all use Saskatchewan's curriculum. Lloydminster provides post-secondary education through Lakeland College offering one and two year certificate and diploma programs.

Medical services[link]

The Lloydminster Hospital, located on the Saskatchewan side of the city, serves residents of both sides, through an agreement between the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments.

Media[link]

Newspapers

• Meridian Booster, serves Lloydminster and area, circulating to 15,000 homes. Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.
• The Lloydminster Source is a free weekly newspaper, distributed each Tuesday and Thursday.

Radio

• FM 95.9: CKSA (country) "Lloyd FM"
• FM 97.5: CKUA-FM-15 (variety)
• FM 106.1: CKLM (rock) "The Goat"

Television

• Channel 2: CKSA, CBC
• Channel 4: CITL, CTV

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lloydminster

Climate[link]

Lloydminster experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb), which approaches a semi-arid (Köppen climate classification Bsk) climate due to the amount of rainfall this city receives. Winters are long, cold and dry, while summers are short, warm and moderately wet. Year-round precipitation is low, with an average of 408mm.

Notable residents[link]

This article's list of residents may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability or notability policies. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources cited within this article showing they are notable and residents or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (June 2011)

• Colby Armstrong - NHL forward
• Calvin Ayre - founder of bodog
• Garnet "Ace" Bailey- NHL forward, died on United Airlines Flight 175
• Braden Holtby - NHL goaltender
• Clarke MacArthur - NHL forward
• Wade Redden - NHL defenceman
• Scott Hartnell - NHL forward

See also[link]

• List of communities in Alberta
• List of communities in Saskatchewan
• List of cities in Alberta

References[link]

External links[link]

• City of Lloydminster
• Statistics Canada Map of Lloydminster (Part), Alberta
• Statistics Canada Map of Lloydminster (Part), Saskatchewan
• The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan - Lloydminster

	Dewberry	Marwayne	St. Walburg
	Vermilion		Maidstone
		Lloydminster    East
	Wainwright	Chauvin	Marsden

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Rick Mercer
Rick Mercer, September 2007
Born	Richard Vincent Mercer (1969-10-17) October 17, 1969 (age 42) St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
Website
http://www.rickmercer.com/

Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer (born October 17, 1969) is a Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist, and blogger.

Mercer first came to national attention in 1990, when he premiered his one man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It, or Charles Lynch Must Die at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. A pointed, satirical political commentary on Canadian life after Meech Lake, Show Me the Button made Mercer a national star as he toured the show across Canada.^{[citation needed]} Mercer came to greater attention for his role in the satirical news show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and his spinoff special Talking To Americans was the highest-rated comedy special in the history of CBC Television, with 2.7 million viewers.

Television shows[link]

In 1992, he created and performed his second show, I've Killed Before, I'll Kill Again, which was also a popular touring show. Also in that year, he began to work with former CODCO members Cathy Jones, Mary Walsh, and with fellow Newfoundlander Greg Thomey, to create a new television series for CBC Television which became This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

In the first eight seasons of 22 Minutes, Mercer provided some of the show's signature moments, including an Internet petition (on the 22 Minutes website) to force Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day to change his first name to Doris.

Mercer's tightly scripted and performed two-minute "rants," in which he would speak directly to the camera about a current political issue, shot in a style similar to those Denis Leary used in MTV commercials, quickly became the show's signature segment. In 1998, he published a book, Streeters, which compiled many of his most famous 22 Minutes rants. It quickly became a national bestseller. In 2007 he published his second book, Rick Mercer Report: The Book.

In November 2010, Mercer contributed a rant he had previously recorded in 2007 on the subject of teen bullying in high schools to Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project.^[1]

[edit] Made in Canada

Mercer co-created the series Made in Canada, which ran for five seasons on CBC Television from 1998–2003. The show was a fast-paced situation comedy which self-referentially satirized the Canadian TV production industry, often drawing from details of its own production companies and including thinly veiled parodies of contemporary programs. It was syndicated abroad as The Industry and won several Gemini Awards (which were themselves satirized in subsequent episodes.)

[edit] Talking to Americans

One of Mercer's trademark comedy routines on 22 Minutes was Talking to Americans, in which he would travel to a major American city or institution and conduct on-the-street interviews with average Americans regarding Canadian politics, the weather, etc., often with hilarious results as the subject's ignorance about Canada was illustrated. One famous example saw Mercer asking Americans' opinion on whether Canada should change its "20 Hour Clock" to the 24 hour one used by the United States. He received approval from citizens and from the Governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack. On another occasion he got the support of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in calling on Canadians to save the "National Igloo."

Mercer made international headlines in 2000 when he pulled a Talking to Americans stunt on then-presidential candidate George W. Bush. He successfully got Bush to answer questions about non-existent Canadian Prime Minister "Jean Poutine". Bush was not amused at the time, and thereafter refused to accept interviews from the CBC^{[citation needed]}. However, he did make a joking reference to this incident during his visit to Canada in 2004. In the same US election campaign, Mercer asked Democratic candidate Al Gore to promise to visit the "Canadian capital city" of Toronto after his election. Gore did not question Mercer's incorrect identification of the capital of Canada.

In 2001, Mercer co-produced a CBC special based on Talking to Americans, which attracted 2.7 million Canadian viewers—the highest-rated television special in Canadian history. Later, the respected ABC News program Nightline would devote a show to it. This was his last major project related to 22 Minutes—at the end of the 2000–2001 season, he announced his departure from that show. It was rumoured that he had decided to leave because of friction between Mercer and co-star Mary Walsh^{[citation needed]}, although other reasons include focusing on his other television show, Made in Canada. Talking to Americans was nominated for a Gemini Award, but following the 9/11 attacks, Mercer declined the nomination.

[edit] The Rick Mercer Report

In 2003, Made in Canada ended its run as well, and Mercer began to work on a new CBC series, Rick Mercer's Monday Report. Similar in format to 22 Minutes and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the show debuted in January 2004. Also in 2003, Mercer went to Afghanistan to visit the Canadian troops stationed there (See: Operation Athena), resulting in the television special Christmas in Kabul.

Despite reports of a long-standing feud Mercer invited Walsh to appear on Monday Report as a special guest to promote her own series Hatching, Matching and Dispatching.

At the end of its second season, Monday Report was the highest rated arts and entertainment show on the CBC. Mercer has had a who's who from the world of Canadian entertainment and politics appear as guests on his show. Ex-Prime Minister Paul Martin gave him a private tour of 24 Sussex Drive and former New Democratic Party leader Ed Broadbent made snow angels with Mercer on Parliament Hill. Other prominent guests were NDP leader Jack Layton; Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper (now Prime Minister); Green Party leader Elizabeth May; then-Conservative MP Belinda Stronach; Conservative MP Peter MacKay; Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams; Olympic gold medallist Kyle Shewfelt; author Pierre Berton; recording artists Jann Arden, Bif Naked, Rush bassist Geddy Lee and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, and Sarah McLachlan; publishing mogul Conrad Black; and former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. When Mercer hosted a relief benefit concert for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, musical guests Barenaked Ladies appeared in a segment Mercer shot backstage completely naked.

Since Mercer launched his own show, he became a regular target of his old show 22 Minutes. Criticism of Mercer focused mostly on his ongoing support of the Canadian Forces and his personal wealth.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, the CBC moved Monday Report to Tuesday nights, which caused the show's name to be changed to The Rick Mercer Report. On his blog, Mercer wrote of the time slot shift that "we ended the season as the highest rated comedy show on the network. Clearly some drastic changes were needed."

A book by Mercer, Rick Mercer Report: The Book, based on his television program, was published on September 25, 2007, by Doubleday Canada. This was Mercer's first book since his bestselling Streeters of 1998, and contained a collection of the best of Mercer's "rants" from the first four seasons of Rick Mercer Report, together with choice moments from interviews for the program and other writings by Mercer. On CBC Radio's Sounds Like Canada on September 21, Shelagh Rogers said of the book that "it's the most fun I've had in bed in a long time." The book entered the Globe and Mail books chart on October 6 at number three. A continuing commercial success, it was number one in the Globe bestseller list in the week before Christmas 2007, and has been reprinted eight times.

An expanded and updated paperback version of Rick Mercer Report: The Book, called Rick Mercer Report: The Paperback Book, was published by Anchor Canada on September 16, 2008 and immediately entered the top ten of the Globe and Mail bestseller list. It continues to sell well and has been reprinted several times.

Other film and television work[link]

Mercer has hosted It Seems Like Yesterday, which examines pop-culture from the 1950s to the 1980s. He has appeared in a few films, including Secret Nation, Understanding Bliss and Bon Cop, Bad Cop.

Awards[link]

Mercer has received more than 20 Gemini Awards for his television work. He has also been a winner of the prestigious Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award, presented to him at the 2003 Banff Television Festival. In 1993, Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells honoured Mercer with the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's Artist of the Year award. In 2004, Mercer was presented with the Governor General's Performing Arts Award. He donated his $15,000 cash prize to the LSPU hall, the theatre in Newfoundland where Mercer performed his early work.

He holds honorary degrees from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Brock University in St. Catharines, McMaster University in Hamilton, Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, and the University of British Columbia. He received an honorary high school diploma for his outstanding efforts and determination from Landmark East School in Wolfville, Nova Scotia in 1999.^[2]

Mercer was awarded the 30th Annual Bob Edwards Award in Calgary.^[3]

In 2007, he was named honorary colonel of the 423 Maritime Helicopter Squadron, based in Shearwater, Nova Scotia; the squadron flies the Sea King helicopters.^[4][5]

Spokesperson and endorsements[link]

Rick Mercer is co-chair, along with Belinda Stronach, in the Spread the Net campaign, partnered through UNICEF, which kicked off at Brock University on September 10, 2008. Spread the Net provides bed nets for $10 each to prevent the spread of malaria among children in Africa.

In December 2004 Mercer appeared on the commercials advertising the One-Tonne Challenge for the Government of Canada. Mercer also appeared as a model in a national ad for men's clothing store, Harry Rosen, wearing a Canali suit. All of Mercer's fees for the campaign went to Casey House, a hospice in Toronto for people living with AIDS. Casey House was founded by June Callwood, who appeared as a celebrity guest on Monday Report.

In September 2005, Mercer became the national spokesperson for the 2005 Walk For Life, a series of 132 fund-raising walks across Canada that raise money for people living with HIV and AIDS. The Walk for Life is a project of the Canadian AIDS Society.