Previous studies pay insufficient attention to the impact of "patriotism," a curious omission given how frequently both government officials and ordinary citizens used their love of country as a rallying cry. This article focuses on Saskatoon, whose 43,027 inhabitants made it Saskatchewan's second-largest city, and examine the way in which patriotism was nourished in the collective mind by several war-related events in the city. Through what may be called the patriotic imagination, World War II was made intense and immediate to prairie dwellers far removed from its conflict zones. Unlike a London or a Leningrad, North American cities like Saskatoon never experienced bombardment. For patriotism to flourish in such locales, the war overseas had to be imagined--and, to a degree, vicariously experienced--at home.