Saskatoon's face has changed with the rise in city's Chinese population
Named after a violet-coloured berry, hometown of legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell and current home of Life of Pi author Yann Martel, Saskatoon is hoping to add a new string to its bow as the next hot spot for Chinese immigrants to Canada.
Saskatoon is the biggest city in a province some outsiders will know thanks to Scottish musical duo The Proclaimers, who boasted they could sing its hard-to-pronounce name - Saskatchewan - without stuttering. (For the record, it is pronounced Sass-CATCH-who-won, and it means "swift-flowing river".) Saskatchewan is the world's largest producer of potash fertiliser.
Tim LeClair, head of the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority, said that a few decades ago, you would have struggled to find a Chinese face in Saskatoon, let alone a restaurant serving dim sum. But nowadays, the city of 300,000 people - with 8 per cent of them immigrants from mainland China - is flush with Chinese eateries and grocery stores stocked with ingredients used in Chinese cooking
"That wasn't there 20 years ago," said the 46-year-old Saskatoon native.
LeClair grew up in the city and its neighbouring towns as his father worked in the mining industry and the family moved around the commodities-rich province.
