?No country on Earth has such contrasts of drought and water plenty as Canada. has so much water ready and available for use. But Canada is learning that national statistics do not begin to portray the complexity of its relationship with its most vital resource. .. a new reality is emerging. It is a reality in which water is in increasingly short supply in some places at some times, where water suddenly
has a real value rather than being an unlimited resource - and where rivers truly can run dry.? (Pearce 2006)
A ?myth of abundance? has historically influenced Canadian water policy and management (Mitchell and Shrubsol, 1994: 1). So has an explicit assumption that ?the hydrological regime is stationary and will continue to be stationary in the future? (Whitfield et al. 2004: 89). There is ?limited availability of freshwater in Canada at different times and places? (Quinn et al. 2004:
1). The place and time of least freshwater is the western plains during recurrent drought.
This paper is about the hydroclimate of this region and specifically how water policy and management might be adjusted to compensate for a long view of the surface hydrology. We examine the hydroclimatic variability from 1600-2100 as a context for records from the 20th
century, the conventional scientific basis for formulating water policy and management strategies.
