New Moose Jaw Tourism ad turning heads

Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie has never been one to shy away from a challenge. The province got a taste of this with the infamous battle between Mac the Moose and the town moose inStor-Elvdal, Norway for world's tallest moose. He won.

So when a friend approached him with an idea for an ad, he was instantly in. The ad features Tolmie clad in a robe at the city'sTemple Gardens Hotel & Spa, poking fun at traveling politicians and singing Moose Jaw's praises.

According to Tolmie, this ad is just the beginning in a series of videos the city wants to release.

"We believe this is the right time, while everybody's got their heads hunkered down, we want to be a community that's promoting ourselves and giving people some hope and inspiration of not where we are right now, but where we can go," Tolmie said.

Tolmie said it was important for him to do the ad personally as well, because he made the call in early January to not travel to Ontario to see his mother, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

"I decided not to because it was a risk not only for her, but for my family and for my job. And, you know, when it is safe to do so, I will make that travel," he said.

"But when I do that, I will let the people of my community, the people of this province and whoever else is listening, know that I make plans. And it's because I'm dealing with someone that has a health condition. And that's why I'm going."

Tolmie said he wants everyone to be safe in this pandemic. If you're close to Moose Jaw and want a little getaway, they're open for business, he said.

"People have been emailing me, messaging me, tweeting and saying, you know, when it's safe, we're going to come to Moose Jaw because we love what you did. And that's what I want," he said.

"I think that's really the hook here, is that people were very disappointed with politicians going away and there are businesses that are struggling to stay afloat, and it doesn't line up with how we view things. If we're saying to be safe and shop local, then let's do that."