This week marks 20 years since a young man from Montreal embarked on a mission to trade a red paperclip for a house. It took 14 trades over the next year before he achieved his goal by landing a house in Kipling, Sask. The community southeast of Regina is now making plans to mark the event that brought worldwide attention. Jennifer Edwards is driving from Ontario to B.C. and stopping at roadside attractions on the way. The famous home was one of those stops. “I looked online to see what unique monuments were along the way and this was one of them, so I came down to check them out and thought [it was] cool,” she said. In July of 2005, Kyle MacDonald from Montreal set out to trade a red paperclip for a house, making 14 online trades before Kipling offered the final trade that he was looking for. “I happen to have a wonderful bunch of councillors who basically said, ‘This sounds weird enough, it just might work,’” Kipling’s Mayor Patricia Jackson said. The town owned a house on Main Street which it traded for a part in a movie produced by Corbin Bernsen. “We did the official trade and he was very excited as was his girlfriend,” Jackson said. MacDonald and his girlfriend stayed in the home only briefly before giving the home back to the community, that is when Billie Johnson noticed tour buses stopping in front of the vacant home and turned it into a restaurant. “My mom who is a red seal chef and I decided we weren’t quite ready to not work anymore with two young kids, so we decided to put the restaurant here,” Johnson said. Kipling will celebrate the red paper clip anniversary in the summer of 2026 because that will be 20 years since the final of the 14 trades was made. The community is still making plans and may invite all 14 traders to the town for a reunion and a thank you for placing Kipling on the map.
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