Regina: Complete Visitor Guide

Regina is Saskatchewan's capital city, sitting on the flat clay plain of southern Saskatchewan without so much as a hill to interrupt the horizon in any direction. The city was chosen as the territorial capital in 1882, and the name was changed from Pile of Bones (the translation of the Cree name for the bone-strewn campsite on Wascana Creek) to Regina in honour of Queen Victoria. The flatness of the setting is compensated by the extraordinary sky — at latitude 50°N with no topographic obstruction, the light and cloud formations over the prairie produce a visual drama that painters have been trying to capture for a century.

Regina is a significant RCMP city — the force's training facility (Depot Division) has been here since 1885, and the RCMP Heritage Centre is one of the most complete presentations of Canadian policing history available. The Wascana Centre, an artificial lake and park system of 930 hectares in the centre of the city, gives Regina an unexpectedly pleasant amount of green open space.

RCMP Heritage Centre

The RCMP Heritage Centre at the Depot Division in Regina is the definitive museum of Canada's national police force, covering the North-West Mounted Police's founding in 1873 (created specifically to assert Canadian sovereignty in the prairies and suppress the whisky trade), the march west to establish forts across the territory, the force's role in major events of prairie history including the North-West Resistance and the Klondike Gold Rush, and the evolution into the modern RCMP. The Depot Division, adjacent to the centre, has been training RCMP officers continuously since 1885 and is the only major police training facility in Canada open to the public for tours.

The Sergeant Major's Parade — the formal parade drill of officer cadets — runs on weekdays and is open to public viewing. The combination of the heritage centre and the parade observation provides a more complete understanding of the force's institutional culture than the museum alone. The Sunset Retreat ceremony in summer (Tuesday evenings at the parade square) is a formal military ceremony with the musical ride horses.

Wascana Centre

Wascana Centre is a 930-hectare urban park surrounding Wascana Lake — an artificial reservoir created by damming Wascana Creek in 1883 — in the heart of Regina. The park contains the Provincial Legislature Buildings, the University of Regina campus, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, the Saskatchewan Science Centre, a children's play area, and extensive waterfowl habitat. The park is managed by a tripartite authority (province, city, and university) and is one of the largest urban parks in North America.

The lake is a major stopover on the Central Flyway for migratory waterfowl — white pelicans, Canada geese, and numerous duck species are present in spring and fall migration in numbers that can be startling. Great blue herons nest in the cottonwood island in the lake. Summer concerts and outdoor events use the bandshell by the lake. The whole park is accessible by walking and cycling trail.

Royal Saskatchewan Museum

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum on Albert Street houses natural history and indigenous heritage collections for the province. The First Nations Gallery is the most significant gallery — a comprehensive presentation of the cultures and histories of Saskatchewan's First Nations developed in consultation with the communities represented. The Natural History Gallery traces the province's geological and biological history, including the Devonian Era reef system that underlies much of the province and the remarkable fossil record of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway.

The Earth Sciences Gallery has specimens of the province's commercially significant mineral deposits alongside the paleontological record. Saskatchewan is one of the most productive fossil regions in the world, and the museum's mosasaur and plesiosaur specimens from the province's marine sediments are particularly impressive. Admission is free.

MacKenzie Art Gallery

The MacKenzie Art Gallery holds a collection of over 5,000 works with strengths in Saskatchewan artists, Canadian contemporary art, and a notable collection of Inuit art. The gallery was founded through a bequest from Norman MacKenzie and occupies a building adjacent to Wascana Centre. The permanent collection includes significant work by James Henderson and other artists who documented Saskatchewan's landscape and Indigenous communities in the early 20th century.

The gallery's programming includes significant touring exhibitions from national and international venues. Admission is free on Sunday afternoons. The gallery shop has the best selection of Saskatchewan artist publications in the province.

Getting to Regina

Regina International Airport (YQR) serves all major Canadian cities. Driving from Saskatoon takes about 2.5 hours on Highway 11. Winnipeg is 6 hours east on the Trans-Canada. No passenger rail serves Regina. Regina Transit provides city bus service.