The city of Sudbury, Ontario never ceases to amaze me. It’s a city that is pretty much in a constant state of transformation. In the 1970’s, it made Buffalo’s burning river look like park land. Nickel mining had mostly parched the land and air with the area being dubbed ‘moonscape’.
After decades of conservation efforts, the barren rock in the Sudbury area now resembles a Chia Pet. Trees now cover much of what was formerly scorched earth but it’s a tough go for the mostly birch trees and they haven’t exactly formed a canopy yet.
I believe many in the Greater Toronto Area, no more than a four hour drive away, would be surprised to know the population of this city in the near north has grown to around 160,000. Well, that’s if the people of Toronto have even heard of Sudbury. Ontario and New York state have something in common in that everything is focused on the one main city to the south while the rest of the province/state is mostly ignored.
It’s not so much the city Stompin Tom Connors sings about in ‘Sudbury Saturday Night’ anymore (see lyrics below the video). Surely, there are a few nickel miners getting ‘stinko’ while their wives are playing bingo but this place is so much more. Laurentian University, Science North, Ramsey Lake, Dynamic Earth and, yes, an OLG casino, just scratch the surface of the things to do and see. And, of course, there is still the Big Nickel.
Of course, it’s not all roses and certainly looks better when the snows off the ground. Then, there’s the Canada wide issue of our natural resources not actually belonging to us. Around the world, Canada is known as one of the richest countries because of massive stores of oil, gold, nickel, silver, diamonds, etc. However, our government has allowed most of that to be sold off to foreign interests. So, yes, Canada is extremely rich in natural resources but most of the 30 million of us aren’t really benefiting much. Have your doubts, have a chat with a resident of Northern Ontario that doesn’t work for the government. They’ll be glad to tell you all about it.
The video below shows views of downtown Sudbury (including the Sudbury Community Area – home of the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League), Ramsey Lake and the Science North area. Be sure to give it a thumbs up!
Well the girls are out to bingo and the boys are gettin stinko
We think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday Night
The glasses they will tinkle while our eyes begin to twinkle
And we think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday Night
With Irish Jim O’Connell there & Scotty Jack McDonald
There’s hunky Frederic Herzal gettin tight but dats alright
There’s happy German trixie there with Frenchie gettin tipsy
And even Joe the gypsy knows its Saturday tonight
Ya well Marianne and Mabel come to join us at the table,
And tell us how the bingo went tonight we’ll lookout right
That if they won the money we’ll be laughin up the honey boys
‘Cause everything is funny for its Saturday tonight
We’ll drink the loot we borrowed and recuperate tomorrow
‘Cause everything is wonderful tonite-we had a good fight
We ate the deli pickle and we forgot about the nickel
And everybody’s tickled for its Saturday tonight
The songs that we’ll be singin They might be wrong but they’ll be ringin
And now the lights of town are shinin bright-and we’re all
Right-We’ll get to work on Monday-but tomorrow’s only Sun.
And we’re out to have a fun day for its Saturday tonight
Sudbury Saturday Night by the late, great Stompin Tom Connors
Pic Of The Day 