On February 2nd people across North America turn their attention to cute little groundhogs to find out if they will see their shadow predicting 6 more weeks of winter or an early spring. Things are a little different in Alberta though.
While there are some famous groundhogs including Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania (that’s the one from the movie) Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia and Wiarton Willie in Ontario, here in Alberta we have the one and only Balzac Billy.
A quick look at Billy will tell you things are not quite the same. Instead of a cute little ground animal Billy is actually just a guy in a mascot costume. That doesn’t stop the residents of Balzac though.
There is still quite the community event to see if this ‘groundhog’ will see his shadow. Residents gather at the Blue Grass Garden Centre for breakfast and to see Billy climb up atop a lovely pile of dirt and look for his shadow.
Things didn’t start so well for his predictions though. For the first few years he predicted more winter and as it arrived people began to blame him for the poor weather conditions. He went into hiding for several years but came back recently to face his critics and continue his predictions.
The question of course is why doesn’t the town use a real groundhog. Because you don’t find them in Southern Alberta, pretty obvious really. In fact he is actually a Richardson Ground Squirrel; a common species in Alberta.
While there may not be the community gathering this year you can catch a live stream of his prediction on the Blue Grass Nurseries Facebook Page
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