About Leader-Post

Leader-Post

The Leader-Post is the daily newspaper of Regina, Saskatchewan — the paper of record for the provincial capital and southern Saskatchewan. Founded in 1883 as The Leader by Nicholas Flood Davin — its first edition printed on March 1, 1883, when Regina was a raw territorial capital on the empty prairie — it is one of the oldest newspapers in Western Canada. It achieved national prominence almost immediately, covering the North-West Rebellion and the trial of Louis Riel. Owned by Postmedia Network and published Monday through Saturday, it has chronicled 140 years of Saskatchewan: the wheat boom, the Regina Cyclone, the CCF's birth, the Roughriders and the modern prairie capital. It publishes at leaderpost.com.

Overview

Regina — the Queen City, a city of about 250,000 on the flat southern prairie, the capital of Saskatchewan — is the political heart of the province: the Legislative Building, the government ministries, the courts, the RCMP's Depot Division. The Leader-Post is its daily newspaper: the newsroom covers the Saskatchewan legislature, the provincial government, Regina city council, the courts, agriculture, energy, education (including the University of Regina) and the life of the southern prairie.

The paper's distinction is its age and its capital-city role: 143 years of continuous publication — the documentary record of Saskatchewan from the territorial days to the potash age — and its position as the legislature's paper of record. The Leader-Post's front pages on the Riel trial, the Cyclone, the CCF's rise, the potash deals and the Riders' Grey Cups are the province's memory. In a capital where the newspaper predates the province — where the Leader was reporting before Saskatchewan existed — the paper's journalism is woven into the province's identity: the chronicler of the wheat century and the witness of the prairie's transformations. Its archives — 1,378,597 searchable pages from 1883–2026 — are among the great newspaper archives of the West.

History

The paper's founding is frontier legend. A group of prominent citizens approached lawyer Nicholas Flood Davin soon after his arrival in Regina and urged him to set up a newspaper; Davin accepted their offer — and their $5,000 in seed money. The Regina Leader printed its first edition on March 1, 1883 — soon after Lieutenant-Governor Edgar Dewdney named the vacant site of Pile-O-Bones (renamed Regina by Princess Louise) the territorial capital. Published weekly by the mercurial Davin, the paper almost immediately achieved national prominence during the North-West Rebellion and the subsequent trial of Louis Riel: Davin had immediate access to the developing story, and his scoops were picked up by the national press. His greatest coup was sending reporter Mary McFadyen Maclean to conduct a jailhouse interview with Riel — obtained by masquerading as a francophone Catholic cleric, interviewing Riel in French under the nose of uncomprehending anglophone guards.

The paper chronicled Saskatchewan's history: the wheat boom — the homesteaders, the elevators, the wheat pouring east — the province's creation in 1905, the Regina Cyclone of 1912 (Canada's deadliest tornado), the Depression, the CCF's election in 1944 (North America's first socialist government), the potash and uranium ages, and the modern prairie capital. The Leader-Post's archives are the documentary record of the prairie province: the territorial days, the settlement, the droughts, the social-democratic experiment, the resource booms and the making of modern Regina. It became the Leader-Post through the twentieth century's mergers. Its sister publication, the Regina Sun — the weekly community paper begun in 1983, delivered free to all Regina homes until 2015, with circulation of 86,600 in 2010 — extended its reach. Ownership passed through the Southam chain into Canwest and Postmedia Network. The paper's offices are at 1964 Park Street in Regina.

Content and Sections

The modern Leader-Post is built around the capital. The Saskatchewan legislature anchors the political coverage — the paper covers the premier, the government and the opposition with a dedicated bureau — alongside Regina city council, the courts and the region's municipalities. Agriculture receives sustained attention reflecting the province's identity: the wheat, the canola, the cattle, the farm economy, the droughts and the bumper crops — the Leader-Post's farm coverage is read across the prairies, and its reporting on the harvest is the province's annual ritual.

Energy — the oil, the potash, the uranium, the royalties that fund the province — is a constant thread, reflecting Saskatchewan's resource identity. Education coverage spans the school boards, the Conexus Arts Centre's community role, and the University of Regina — the province's capital university. The Roughriders — the CFL team that is Saskatchewan's civic religion, the green-and-white passion that unites the province — receive wall-to-wall coverage; the paper's Rider beat, chronicling the Grey Cups, the rebuilds and the Mosaic Stadium era, is among the most-read sports journalism in the country. The arts, the festivals, the city's cultural life are covered with depth. Opinion pages carry editorials, columns and letters from southern Saskatchewan, and feature sections cover food, homes, health and community life. Its archives document the territorial days, the wheat century, the Cyclone and the making of modern Regina.

Coverage and Audience

The Leader-Post serves Regina and southern Saskatchewan — a market of roughly 500,000 people across the capital, the prairie cities and the farm country. Its audience is the province's farmers, public servants, energy workers, educators and the Roughrider faithful.

Print circulation was reported at 34,047 on weekdays and 34,581 on Saturdays as of 2015, with weekly circulation of 236,276 in 2013; the paper publishes Monday through Saturday in print with continuous digital coverage. The paper's political coverage carries weight at the legislature: as the capital's paper of record, its investigations, editorials and columnists shape Saskatchewan's political conversation. Its legislative bureau's reporting is read by every MLA; its editorial board's positions move the province's debate; its columnists are among the most influential voices in Saskatchewan public life. Its Rider coverage is a provincial institution.

Ownership

The Leader-Post is owned by Postmedia Network Inc., Canada's largest newspaper chain, which acquired it through the Canwest/Southam lineage. Within Postmedia, the paper shares national content, digital platforms and corporate services with the chain's other papers — including its sister paper the StarPhoenix in Saskatoon — while maintaining its Regina newsroom and editorial identity.

Postmedia itself is publicly traded and majority-owned by the U.S. investment firm Chatham Asset Management. The paper's lineage — from Davin's 1883 Leader through the twentieth-century chains to Postmedia — connects the territorial press to the digital age.

Digital Presence

The paper's website, leaderpost.com, is a continuously updated prairie operation: breaking Saskatchewan news, legislature coverage, Roughriders reporting, columnists, farm news, weather and markets, photo galleries and video, optimized for the mobile-first reader. The site runs on Postmedia's shared digital infrastructure, offering digital subscriptions, e-edition replicas of the print paper and newsletters.

On social media the Leader-Post distributes breaking Saskatchewan news, Rider scores, harvest reports and columnists to a large provincial following. As of 2026, the Leader-Post continues to publish daily — in print and online — 143 years after Davin's first edition, still the capital's paper of record, still the prairie's daily, still the Leader, still the prairie's own paper, still and always the capital's paper, still the Leader-Post, still standing tall.

Nicholas Flood Davin's 1883 Leader — first edition March 1, on the empty prairie — made its name on the North-West Rebellion and the Riel trial: the scoops that put a territorial paper on the national map. Through the wheat boom, the Regina Cyclone, the CCF's birth and the Roughriders' glory, the Leader-Post has been southern Saskatchewan's record — 140 years and counting, Monday through Saturday.