WestCentral

Prime Minister Mark Carney will be watched closely by Canadians infuriated by Donald Trump — and by an anxious business community looking for tariff relief — when he meets with the U.S. president Tuesday in Washington.

After months of Trump's annexation threats, the newly elected prime minister will be tasked with a delicate balancing act — showing strength while maintaining Canada's place in a critical North American trade pact the president's tariffs have sought to upend.

 May 5 is Red Dress Day in Saskatchewan, a national day of awareness to honour and remember Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit+ (MMIWG2S+) people.

The day serves as a reminder of the ongoing crisis of violence faced by Indigenous communities across Canada and calls on all residents to take an active role in ending gender-based and racialized violence.

From high-profile political promises to courtroom conclusions and agricultural honours, this week’s top five stories span a wide range of headlines from across Saskatchewan. Pierre Poilievre rallied over 1,000 supporters in Saskatoon, while courts in Kindersley and Red Deer delivered verdicts in significant fraud and assault cases. Meanwhile, six notable individuals were announced as 2025 inductees into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame, celebrating decades of service to the province’s farming legacy.

The Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team has cleared Swift Current RCMP officers after an in-custody death in May 2024.

"There being no grounds to believe an offence was committed by any police officer, SIRT’s involvement with this matter is concluded without referral to the Attorney General for Saskatchewan," said the conclusion of a SIRT report on the incident.

The Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre (Sask DLC) continues to experience strong enrolment growth in its Mechanical and Automotive programs, with more than 400 high school students registered in the 2024-25 school year — more than triple the number from the previous year.

Election coverage didn't stop some great local content from hitting the website this past week.

A sports story featured a pair of West Central natives and their second straight SJHL championship win. In news our reporter Jenny Hagan hosted a "Dig Safe" breakfast event in Rosetown, also joining Nick Cooper for Classroom of the Month. 

Find those stories and more below in the top five local articles from the past week:

King Charles will visit Ottawa to deliver the speech from the throne at the end of this month in a show of support for Canadian sovereignty, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.

The news came in his first press conference since leading the Liberals to a fourth straight mandate in Monday's election, where he laid out the priorities for his first few months, promising to "embark on the biggest transformation of our economy since the end of the Second World War." 

More than three quarters of Canadians believe misinformation had an impact on the outcome of the federal election, a new poll suggests.

The Leger poll, which sampled more than 1,500 Canadian adults from April 29 to May 1, suggests that 19 per cent of people think false information or misinformation had a major impact on the election.

Almost a third (32 per cent) said it had a moderate impact, while 26 per cent said it had a minor impact on the election's outcome.

Only nine per cent of Canadians said misinformation had no impact on the election at all.

Western Canada is a great place to witness climate change in action. That, from USask water expert and Canada Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change, Dr. John Pomeroy, who says the Saskatchewan River system is completely dependent on mountain snow and glacier ice melt for its water flow. For example, in Saskatoon, 99 per cent of the flow from the South Saskatchewan River is coming from Alberta and 80 per cent of that is from the Rockies. Pomeroy states that what happens in the Rockies doesn’t stay in the Rockies. Its flows through our river system.

Saskatchewan’s economy continued its upward trajectory in 2024, posting the second-highest real GDP growth rate among Canadian provinces, according to new data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.

The province’s real gross domestic product rose by 3.4 per cent last year to a record high of $80.5 billion, surpassing the previous year’s total of $77.9 billion. The national average growth rate was 1.6 per cent.