What is Regina?

Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan and the second-largest city in the province after Saskatoon, with a population of about 235,000 in the city and about 260,000 in the Census Metropolitan Area. The city is in the southern Saskatchewan prairie about 160 kilometres north of the United States border. Regina has been the provincial capital since Saskatchewan joined Confederation on September 1, 1905.

The city was founded in 1882 as Pile of Bones, named after the buffalo bones piled at the site by Cree hunters, and served as the Northwest Territories capital from 1882 (when the territorial capital moved from Battleford). The town was renamed Regina (Latin for Queen) by Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne (the Governor General's wife) on August 23, 1882, in honour of her mother Queen Victoria. The North-West Mounted Police (renamed Royal North-West Mounted Police in 1904 and Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920) established its headquarters in Regina in 1882, and Regina remains the location of the only RCMP training academy, the RCMP Depot Division, where every RCMP officer in Canada completes basic training.

Regina was the site of the 1885 trial and execution of Louis Riel, the Metis leader of the North-West Rebellion. Riel was hanged in Regina on November 16, 1885 after a controversial trial. The Riel trial site is preserved as a National Historic Site. The city also hosted the 1924 trial that led to the Persons Case (which the Famous Five eventually won at the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1929) when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled (later overturned) that women were not 'persons' eligible for Senate appointment.

Modern Regina's economy centres on provincial government, agriculture (the city is the headquarters of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool's successor company Viterra, owned by Bunge Limited), potash mining (Saskatchewan produces about 30 per cent of global potash), insurance and financial services (the Co-operators Insurance, Crown Investments Corporation), oil and gas (the Bakken Formation extends into southeast Saskatchewan), and the University of Regina (founded 1974, expanded from Regina College established 1911). Wascana Centre, a 9-square-kilometre urban park around the artificial Wascana Lake, contains the Saskatchewan Legislative Building (opened 1912), the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, the Saskatchewan Science Centre, and the MacKenzie Art Gallery. The provincial flag, adopted on September 22, 1969, features the western red lily, the provincial flower.