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This castle on the river is a Canadian landmark


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Which grand railway hotel turns up on an album cover? Answer: the Delta Bessborough, a Saskatoon landmark known as The Bezz.
The album is Clouds by Joni Mitchell, who grew up in this town on the South Saskatchewan River. She painted a self-portrait for the cover, and there, in the upper right-hand corner, we discover Saskatoon's castle.
This hotel is worth celebrating. It arose out of burning envy. When the Canadian Pacific Railway built a grand hotel in Regina in 1926, the burghers of Saskatoon lobbied the Canadian National Railway to respond in kind. In exchange for building a chateau-style hotel of at least 200 rooms (in the end: 225), the city exempted CN from paying property tax for 25 years. 
 The Bessborough, completed in 1933, was one of the most luxurious hotels in Canada. It still qualifies as “grand.” We lucked into a view over the five-acre gardens and the South Saskatchewan River and all I can say is that I’ve looked at life from both sides now, and traveling VIA-Rail with 50 Canadians Who Changed the World is for me the only way to go. Judging from the way our contest is going, a lot of Canadians share the same view.
Ken McGoogan
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Before turning mainly to books about arctic exploration and Canadian history, Ken McGoogan worked for two decades as a journalist at major dailies in Toronto, Calgary, and Montreal. He teaches creative nonfiction writing through the University of Toronto and in the MFA program at King’s College in Halifax. Ken served as chair of the Public Lending Right Commission, has written recently for Canada’s History, Canadian Geographic, and Maclean’s, and sails with Adventure Canada as a resource historian. Based in Toronto, he has given talks and presentations across Canada, from Dawson City to Dartmouth, and in places as different as Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Hobart.