Coffee Talk audio-

Here’s a new phrase I hadn’t heard before, “Forecast discrimination”.

The term is being used by Jersey Tourism….that’s the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands off the southern coast of England…which has complained to the BBC that it’s weather hardly gets mentioned on tv weather reports. This, they say, costs Jersey, which is a British Crown Dependency, millions of pounds in tourism revenues because potential visitors are unaware of the island’s pleasant climate that benefits from the Gulf Stream and prevailing southwest winds. Jersey is circulating a petition that claims its residents are entitled to the same BBC forecast coverage as the rest of the United Kingdom. I like that phrase, “Forecast discrimination”. Perhaps we Saskatonians should start a petition to send to the Weather Network and, for all the extra time it takes, the head offices of CTV, CBC, and Global reminding them that Saskatoon deserves at least as much coverage as Regina. We are the largest population centre in the province but quite often on the national maps during the weather I see Victoria and Vancouver, then Edmonton and Calgary, followed by Regina, and then Winnipeg before moving east through Ontario. Doggone it, that’s forecast discrimination for sure. The deprived, weather-hungry people in Saskatoon and area sometimes have to rely on radio to find out the temperature and what to wear, which isn’t such a bad thing after all.

That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.