To suggest to rural Saskatchewan people that change does not come easily seems both a tad ridiculous and condescending.
Far more so than their city cousins, rural people have done nothing but adopt to change for most of the past 100 years.
It wasn't long after the settlement shortly after the turn of the last century - settlement that meant the grandfathers and great grandfathers of today's rural residents relocating from elsewhere in the world - that change was thrust upon them again.
The dustbowl Depression of the 1930s forced many of these relatively new arrivals off their land. Those that did manage to hang on did so by either finding alternative sources of income or different ways of farming. That was followed by the disruption of the Second World War that even saw some women of the 1940s taking on much larger roles on the farms or in small rural businesses.
The 1950s, '60s and '70s were largely about changing to increased world of mechanization on the farms that, in turn, changed the nature of rural communities that grew sparse, as farms got bigger.
And the adjustment of the 1980s, 90s and 2000s has been all about adjusting to different crops and marketing strategies. As farmers turned into producers, the job took on a new dimension that required financial savvy. This will become even more important in the coming year with the recent demise of the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly. In turn, rural communities have become far less about servicing the agriculture sector and more about servicing small implement manufacturers, a growing resource sector in oil, natural gas and potash and even a burgeoning tourism industry.
Change has often seemed to be the only constant in rural Saskatchewan and it doesn't look like it's about to stop anytime soon. In fact, the new demographic changes in Saskatchewan are quickly becoming the province's biggest challenge. And the rural communities that will come out on top may be the ones that find a successful way of adjust to Saskatchewan's changing demographics.
The first such change is adjusting to new immigration, which - even for a part of the world built on immigration 100 years ago - may be a lot tougher than it sounds.
The reason Saskatoon and Regina are suddenly become two of most rapidly growing places in Canada has a lot to do with the influx of non-white European immigrants finding gainful employment and comfort in making a home in Saskatchewan's two largest cities. The challenge for rural communities is providing similar employment opportunities and a welcoming atmosphere for newcomers that want to move here - something that's harder in smaller centres where there just isn't the infrastructure and resources to accommodate those with different languages, skill sets, customs and religions.
But the even bigger challenge for rural communities in the coming decades may be finding a way to work with First Nations that are simultaneously becoming both a rising economic power and a bigger social-economic challenge.
The transition from reserve life to small town life for both rural communities and rural First Nations people has - at least to date - not exactly been a massive success. But as First Nations take increasing control of their resources and begin to develop more commercial enterprise both on and off reserve, this dynamic will change. Not all the change will be positive as such change is inevitably accompanied by social problems as well.
The difficulty for rural people may be to find away to embrace the good and bad that coming out of nearby First Nations communities that will obviously be dealing with their own transition issues in the coming years.
It won't be easy. But if there is one certainty, it is that rural Saskatchewan people know how to deal with change.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 15 years.
