Kick Sleighs and Winter

Last Thursday, Winnipeg was host to a special guest with the Swedish Ambassador to Canada, Urban Ahlin.

Ambassador Ahlin assumed his new role at the Embassy of Sweden in Ottawa in Feb 2019. On his first visit to Winnipeg as ambassador, he joined his nordic counterparts for various meetings with Manitoba’s legislators. Ambassador Ahlin was invited down to the Forks by the Swedish Cultural Association to celebrate the aspects of Sweden and the other Nordic countries.

Even though it was -38C, Ambassador Ahlin was adamant about heading out onto the Red River and enjoying a pleasant ride on a kick sleigh. Winnipeg Trails recently introduced rentable kick sleighs into their inventory with the hope of bringing this nordic staple into the Manitoba public’s awareness. Kick sleighs are used widely in Sweeden, says Ambassador Ahlin, as a means of transportation to go to the grocer or when your going ice fishing. According to Ambassador Ahlin, kick sleighs haven’t been used often in Sweden since the ’60s. It wasn’t until recently that they started looking at more environmentally friendly solutions to road clearing that they’ve started to see more widespread use again.

“We have it like it is in Winnipeg. The walkways have snow, so it’s easy to ride the kick sleigh. We started using more salt on the walkways, and when you have salt on concrete and asphalt, you can’t really use [kick sleighs]. For a period of time, they went away. Nowadays, it’s more environmentally friendly, we’re using less salt, and now kick sleighs are coming back into the Swedish tradition.”

However, if they are going to achieve more mainstream appeal here in Canada, the way we clear our roads and walkways will have to change.

“We have a little bit of different approach to plowing streets. In Ottawa, they pour salt onto the roads to get rid of ice. In Sweden, you don’t do that. We have studded tires, and we tell people to drive carefully because of winter conditions. The first thing we plow are the walkways. We look at it from the perspective that kids need to go to school, and we need to look to other things than cars.”