From the traveling desk of Alain Pineau — January 23, 2012
SASKATOON — Already time to head back to the airport. My only week in the office between January 9 and February 21 has gone by like a flash of lightning: so many things to do before returning to the on-the-road virtual office, hostage to technological hazards and human frailty!
So, back to the national tour: after Victoria and Vancouver, BC, on to Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I knew my first stop, Saskatoon, was referred to as the City of Bridges. Last Friday, I learned on CBC’s National that it is “the most tunefully suggestive city in the country”, or so thinks U.S. Travel Editor Robert Reid. I neglected to confirm this opinion with CCA Board member and musician Skip Kutz, and with Marnie Gladwell, Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance, with whom I shared a good glass of wine last night. We were busy reviewing the packed agenda for the next two days: back-to-back meetings from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with short breaks in between.
Wednesday night, I should arrive in Winnipeg where CCA Board member Nicole Matiation and Thom Sparling, Executive Director of the Association of Cultural Industries of Manitoba, have generously managed to organize my short visit as efficiently as possible.
I must admit I am impatient to renew the dialogue with you. I received excellent feedback and advice in British Columbia and I believe future meetings can only benefit from the same. Since we started the conversations in Montréal and Toronto in late November, I have witnessed a real interest in what the CCA is and in what it offers. There is as well a healthy dose of scepticism as to its future prospects. No doubt that the challenge is significant; it is only by trying our best that we can find out whether it is insurmountable.
I’ll be back later on in the week to tell you all about Saskatoon and Regina. In the meantime, follow me via Twitter.
–Alain