Balzac Billy

About Billy

Balzac Billy is the “Prairie Prognosticator”, a man-sized gopher mascot who prognosticates weather on Groundhog Day from the town of Balzac, Alberta. Billy is not a real groundhog because groundhogs are not native to Alberta. Instead, Billy is more properly a Richardson Ground Squirrel (ie, a gopher) who lives in a man-sized burrow outside the Blue Grass Nursery & Garden Centre. Billy eats seeds, leaves, roots and flowers, as well as some insects, and of course his annual Groundhog Day Breakfast!