The prairies are Robert Collins's spiritual home. He was born and raised on a Saskatchewan farm but lived most of his adult life elsewhere. Now he returns to his homeland to pay homage to the special nature of the people who live in this unique region of Canada. His cast of characters, some poignant, some hilarious, includes city- and town-dwellers, farmers, oilmen, politicians, artists. He encounters a cowboy poet with a Ph.D.; the private world of a Hutterite colony; a single mother who is a rancher; the banker who saved an historic tree; a native woman fighting to clean up the reserves. He takes a sly look at the Western "redneck," samples local culinary delights, and finds a passionate love of prairie in Peter Lougheed. Prairie People describes the stark misery of the earliest settlers and the fierce elements that shape and toughen their descendants to this day. And it examines the increasingly urban face of the region, explains the unifying distrust of "Central Canada," and illustrates the people's hardy pessimism, their uncommon independence and self-reliance, their legendary humour, warmth, and friendliness. An absorbing compilation of stories told in the voices of ordinary people and the author's own memories and commentary on the region's past and present, Prairie People explores the characteristics that define these people to themselves and reveals them to the rest of Canada. Book jacket.
