Latest news with #ThisisSaskatchewan
CBC
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Proud Canadian Kim Coates charts his rise from Sask. jock to Hollywood star
Social Sharing How do you go from growing up in Saskatoon, and going to the University of Saskatchewan, to becoming a Hollywood actor featured in blockbuster TV and movies? Kim Coates has one answer — he chalks it up to fate. Before going to university, he described himself as a jock who loved hockey and his classic car, and who'd never even seen a play in a theatre. "I was going to be a history teacher," he told CBC's This is Saskatchewan in its latest podcast featuring the Sask. actor's rise to fame. But when the word "drama" popped out at him as a potential elective he could take at the U of S, he signed up, thinking the class would be an easy pass. "And the rest is history." It started a love of acting on stage. He's still the youngest person to ever play Macbeth at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. He segued into a movie career with roles in Waterworld, Pearl Harbour and Black Hawk Down, and grew into starring roles in shows like Sons of Anarchy and The Walking Dead: Dead City. "I had no idea about the power about being on a show like Sons, which was so huge around the world and what that can do to your career," he said. Next up, Coates has a new rom-com coming out with funny man and friend Kevin James that will be released on Valentine's Day. He also recently wrapped filming in Calgary for a new movie that's yet to be announced. Through it all, Coates has stayed connected to Saskatchewan — his family still lives in Saskatoon — even though he has dual U.S-Canada citizenship. "I just feel at home in Canada and I knew I always would," he said, describing the current state of the U.S. as a "horror show." "And so for me to be a proud Canadian and talk about it every day that I get the opportunity to," he said. "I'll never stop. This is the greatest country in the world." This story is from the This is Saskatchewan podcast — your connection to the stories Saskatchewan is talking about. Every week, the podcast covers local issues that matter. Hear the voices that are creating change, shaping policy and fuelling creativity in Saskatchewan.
CBC
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
This teacher quit his day job for TikTok. So can you make a living on social media?
Social Sharing Before social media creator Steve Boots was pumping out content full-time for his hundreds of thousands of followers, he was a burnt-out elementary teacher in Regina. The wear-and-tear of the daily grind prompted him to take a leave from teaching and turn his sights to making money from streaming channels full-time. It's a far cry from going to school, teaching and writing report cards for the content creator, who uses the last name Boots online in lieu of his actual last name, Boutilier. "I was just so tired. I was used up, I was grumpy. My social batteries were so depleted by the end of the day," he said. Now he sets his own hours, breaking down news stories and happenings in short, digestible videos on platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. The past month saw him ride a roller-coaster high of being a politics creator during a Canadian election, while getting paid to do so. "I consider what I do now still teaching in a different format," he said. "I kind of think of myself as a social studies teacher to the Canadian internet in a way." So what does it take to be a successful content creator in Saskatchewan and support one's self through social media? The latest episode of CBC's podcast This is Saskatchewan dug into this question, with the help of creators like Boutilier. How to pull in the dollars There's a wide range of compensation streams for creators. In Canada, none of them come from TikTok. Its Creator Fund does not pay Canadian creators. You can, however, earn money from YouTube. Boutilier said YouTube estimates his average monthly earnings from the platform are between $1,000 to $3,000. On the higher end, there's Sierra & Rhia FAM, a family of YouTubers based in Canada that features the antics of two sisters. The channel earns them an estimated $2 million dollars a month, according to Social Blade, a website that tracks creator statistics. It's the kind of money Boutilier used to hear lots of his middle-school students daydream about making. "What I wish I could convey to them is that the only way you can breakthrough is by working ludicrously hard and not looking like you're working hard while you're doing it," he said. The good, the bad, the hustle Agencies around the globe have sprung up to help content creators make money by connecting them with brand partners. "We facilitate partnerships in the range of a few hundred dollars to well into six figures. So it's a pretty wide spectrum," said Doug Campbell, CEO of Moose Jaw-based Creatorade. "We've seen it to be sustainable for multiple creators that are doing this full-time today." There's a huge appetite from brands to get creators' support. Campbell pointed to estimates suggesting about $33 billion will be spent in the creator economy in 2025. It can be frustrating for Canadian creators to see American creators raking in more money just by posting content, even with fewer followers. That's certainly the case for Nick Myers, who posts under Leroy & Leroy. He said getting connected with Creatorade took the burden of how to make money off his shoulders, as it's given him sponsored content and brand partnership opportunities. "I don't have to sell, I just get to meet people and create with them," he said. His favourite part of the job remains travel — rolling up to small towns, talking to people and ending with his signature line: "There's always something to do." Myers has also quit his full-time work in radio and media relations to focus on social media. "It wasn't easy to walk away from a role like that, but it was at a time where I had to bet on myself," he said. Rancher Dickson Delorme — better known as Quick Dick McDick online — said making a living as a Canadian content creator requires hustle. "You need to be able to grab that traction, you need to be able to get views, you need to be able to get clicks, you need to be able to get impressions," he said. He noted there's an element of luck in capturing people's attention. When it comes to dollars and cents, Delorme said one successful video with 200,000 views netted him $800 from YouTube. But on the other hand, some of his videos reflect hours and hours upon work — including one showing the life of a cow that took two years of work capturing video and drone footage. "It's just a matter of how much time you're willing to put in to showcase what we do, and hopefully in an elevating manner where people laugh and chuckle a bit and learn something along the way." Boutilier said he doesn't necessarily have a plan for the future of his Steve Boots social media career. He's simply enjoying the ride and seeing where it takes him.
CBC
27-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
For many Sask. families, there's a high cost to chasing sports dreams
Social Sharing Regina's Schultz family knows the cost of competing at the highest level. Maddox Schultz, 15, is expected to be the first overall pick at the upcoming WHL draft, and has been dubbed by hockey scouts as a future star. But his rise didn't happen overnight, and Maddox learned from an early age what it meant to live in a high-performance environment. His parents, Vicki and David Schultz — both elite figure skating coaches — raised him in rinks while coaching his older sister in figure skating. He says for now, he's trying to focus on appreciating the support of his family. "I just gotta be grateful for the time, and enjoy the time I have with them, because ... they're my people," Maddox said in an interview with CBC's This is Saskatchewan. But for many families across Saskatchewan, the pressure to invest in their children's sports dreams, in hopes of one day playing professionally, can be intense. And from private coaching to specialized camps, equipment upgrades, cross-country tournaments and hotel bills, the expenses pile up quickly. "In volleyball, just for a December to May season, you're looking at $1,500 to $3,000 just for the basics," Mark Dodds, head coach of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women's volleyball team, said in an interview with CBC Radio's Blue Sky. "But it's all the travel — that's where the cost really ramps up. It can easily pile into the $10,000-plus range." In hockey, that figure is often much higher, with families sometimes spending tens of thousands of dollars in a single year to stay competitive. The financial cost is only part of the pressure. Families are also often faced with tough decisions about their child's future, and how much time should be dedicated to sports specialization. "You're seeing sometimes where parents are living vicariously through their kids," Dodds said. "That over-involvement, that requirement that a kid continues to chase the higher level despite whether they want to or not… usually that doesn't turn out too well." Dodds said he worries about the long-term effects, noting that many athletes are burning out by the time they reach 16 or 17 years old. "The enjoyment of sports for kids gets taken out because of the demand and pressure," Dodds said. As families continue to navigate the demands of elite youth sports, Dodds hopes they keep in mind the original reason their kids started playing.
CBC
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Smut is having a moment. These romance lovers suggest their top 5 reads for 2025
Saskatchewan musician Farideh had a revelatory moment in 2023 when she picked up a fantasy romance novel called Fourth Wing. At that time, she was searching for books that were light and breezy. "I want a book I read Tuesday that I forget by Thursday. I don't want to be changed, I don't want to be moved," she laughingly told CBC host Sam Maciag for an edition of This is Saskatchewan, exploring the popularity of the smut and romance genre. Reading Fourth Wing led Farideh to recommendations for other books in the romance genre that gave her the thrill she was seeking — books that light up the brain and rev the reader's pulse. Farideh ended up devouring 380 romance books last year, more than a book a day. She's the kind of voracious romance reader driving the sales at brick and mortar boutiques dedicated to racy books. That includes Slow Burn Books in Calgary, The Book Boudoir in Edmonton and Saskatoon's own Pages of Passion. Victoria Koops released her debut novel Who We Are in Real Life last year after a lifetime of consuming romance fiction. As a high school counsellor in Weyburn, Sask., she knows how heavy life can be, and said romance can provide people a much-needed emotional lift. "Our brains are constantly working, constantly processing, taking in new information, and our bodies feel bad and the impacts of it," she said. "And so we need places to play, places to escape to so that our brains can actually rest." In this week's episode, Maciag, Koop, Farideh and best-selling romance writer Jennifer L Armentrout break down the joys of romance fiction and share some of their favourite reads. Sam Maciag's picks Abby Jimenez - Just For The Summer. Penny Reid - Truth or Beard. Taylor Jenkins Reid - Forever Interrupted. Brynne Weaver - Leather and Lark. Emily Henry - Beach Read. Farideh's picks Demi Winters - Road of Bones. Thea Guanzon - The Hurricane Wars. Sara Hashem - The Jasad Heir. Elisha Kemp - Drowned by the Sea. CM Nascosta - Morning Glory at the Milking Farm (for the truly open-minded). Koops' picks
CBC
12-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
How worried should Sask. people be about measles?
When measles cases started resurfacing this year, pediatrician Ayishi Kurji had to brush up on her reading, because Canada had declared the contagious disease eliminated back in 1998. "I've never seen measles because it's not something that's been around," she said in the latest episode of CBC's This is Saskatchewan podcast. "Most of the time it's a viral infection that people get over pretty quick, but it can have really devastating consequences and that's why it's so scary." Health experts say vaccination rates of 95 per cent would constitute good herd immunity, but in some geographic areas, vaccination rates could be as low as 40 or 50 per cent. On top of that, half a dozen cases of measles have cropped up recently in Saskatchewan. Statistics show one in four or five people who get measles will end up hospitalized, while one in a thousand could face encephalitis or inflammation around the brain, Kurji said, noting other long-term consequences include the risk of deafness or blindness. Just how contagious is measles? When calculating how contagious a disease is, experts use an R0 value, which is the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to, on average. For example, one person who got COVID would infect four to six other people on average. With measles, that number rises to 12 to 18 people. "There's some statistics that say that 90 per cent of people who are exposed to it, if you're not vaccinated, are going to get results," Kurji said. Saskatchewan's Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab stresses that for those that are unvaccinated, measles is the most highly contagious disease that exists. He also noted that measles has only shown up in 0.1 per cent of people who are fully protected with vaccines. "If they do happen [in vaccinated people], it's a mild rash and it really doesn't transmit further," he said. Shahab said the main concern from a public health standpoint is ensuring everyone is protected by making sure their vaccinations are up-to-date and complete. Adults born between 1970 and 1996 may have only received one vaccination and are encouraged to get a second booster shot at a public health clinic. "If you're fully vaccinated, you should not be concerned," Shahab said.
