Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark will be lip-syncing Last Saskatchewan Pirate by Captain Tractor after the Queen City won a COVID-19 vaccine challenge against the Bridge City.
Regina Mayor Sandra Masters said she is looking forward to seeing Clark lip-syncing and “grooving” to the classic Saskatchewan tune.
“I will be sure to watch it from down ‘on Regina’s mighty shores,'” Masters said in a press release.
The challenge ran June 17-30 to see which city could record the most first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. More than 10,000 first doses were delivered in both cities combined in that time period.
On Friday, Clark’s and Master’s office’s announced that Regina won the challenge with 20.1 per cent of first doses administered per 1,000 people, with Saskatoon following close behind with 19.7 per cent of doses.
Clark seemed to have no objections to the song choice.
“Given the dramatic increase in canoes, paddleboards, kayaks and waterskiers enjoying our river lately, the Last Saskatchewan Pirate seems like a good fit. So I’m happy to take this for the sake of pumping up the vaccine numbers,” Clark added.
Clark also said he wants to keep the competition going and challenged Regina and Masters to see who can get the most doses, first and second, for July.
“We are not out of the woods with COVID,” Clark said.
He added that it’s important for residents to get their first and second doses to help businesses succeed, for employees to return to the office, and for kids to return safely to school in September.
“We have the summer to get ourselves on track and put all the pieces in place for a healthy fall,” Clark said.
As of Friday’s COVID-19 update from the province, a total of 1,194,535 vaccines have been administered. Of those, 728,161 were first doses.
In total, 203,567 first does have been administered in Saskatoon and 173,511 in Regina as of Friday’s update.