Encyclopedia
Manitoba is one of
Canada's
provinces. It was officially recognized by the Federal Government in 1870 as separate from the
Northwest Territories, and became the first province created from the Territories. It is the easternmost of the three
Prairie provinces.
Its capital and largest city is
Winnipeg. Other important cities and towns include
Brandon,
Thompson,
Dauphin, Swan River,
Churchill, The Pas,
Selkirk,
Portage la Prairie, Gimli,
Flin Flon,
Steinbach, Morden, and
Winkler.
A person from Manitoba is called a Manitoban.
Geography
Manitoba is located in the longitudinal centre of Canada, although it is considered part of
Western Canada. It borders
Saskatchewan to the west,
Ontario to the east,
Nunavut and the
Hudson Bay to the north, and the
American states of
North Dakota and
Minnesota to the south.
The province has a coast along
Hudson Bay, and contains the tenth-largest fresh water lake in the world,
Lake Winnipeg, along with other very large lakes:
Lake Manitoba, and
Lake Winnipegosis. Manitoba's lakes cover approximately 14.5% or 94,241 km² of its surface area. Lake Winnipeg is the largest lake within the borders of southern
Canada, and is one of the last remote lake areas with intact watersheds left in the world. Large rivers that flow into the east side of Lake Winnipeg's basin are very pristine, with no major developments along them. Many pristine islands can be found along the eastern shore of this grand lake. There are thousands of lakes across the province.
Important watercourses include the
Red,
Assiniboine,
Nelson, Winnipeg, Hayes and Churchill Rivers.
Most of Manitoba's inhabited south, near or in
Winnipeg, lies within the prehistoric bed of
Glacial Lake Agassiz. This south central part of the province is flat with few hills. However, there are many hilly and rocky areas in the province, along with many large sand ridges left behind by glaciers. Baldy Mountain is the highest point at 832 m above sea level and the Hudson Bay coast is the lowest at sea level. Other upland areas include
Riding Mountain, the Pembina Hills, Sandilands Provincial Forest, and the
Canadian Shield regions. Much of the province's sparsely-inhabited north and east lie within the irregular granite landscape of the
Canadian Shield, including Whiteshell Provincial Park, Atikaki Provincial Park, and Nopiming Provincial Park. Birds Hill Provincial Park was originally an island in
Lake Agassiz after the melting of glaciers.
The climate in Manitoba is typical of its mid continent location and northerly latitude. In general, temperatures and precipitation decrease from south to north. Summers are generally warm to hot and winters very cold. Both spring and autumn are contracted seasons. As Manitoba is far removed from the moderating influences of both mountain ranges and large bodies of water , and because of the generally flat landscape in many areas, it is exposed to numerous weather systems throughout the year including prolonged cold spells in the winter months when arctic high pressure air masses settle over the province. This has resulted in the capital of the province being nicknamed "Winterpeg". It is common to have about minus 40 degrees celsius for quite a few days in the winter, and to have a few weeks that remain below minus 20. In the summer months the climate is often influenced by low pressure air masses originating in the
Gulf of Mexico resulting in hot and humid conditions and frequent thunderstorms with a few tornadoes each year. Manitoba is one of the sunniest places in Canada and
North America.
Only the southern parts of the province support extensive
agriculture. The most common farm found in rural areas is: cattle farming followed by oilseed and wheat farming . Around 11% of the farmland in Canada is in Manitoba. The eastern, southeastern, and northern reaches of the province range through
coniferous
forests,
muskeg,
Canadian Shield, and up to
tundra in the far north. Forests make up about 263,000 square kilometres of the province's 548,000 square kilometre land base. The forests generally consist of pines,
spruces,
tamarack,
cedar,
poplars, and
birch trees. The great expanses of intact forested areas are considered by many naturalists and sportsmen as pristine wilderness areas. Some of the last largest and intact boreal forest of the world can be found along the east side of Lake Winnipeg, with only winter roads, no Hydro development, and few largely populated communities. There are many clean and untouched east side rivers that originate in the Canadian Shield, and flow west into Lake Winnipeg.
History
The geographical area now named Manitoba was originally inhabited as soon as the last ice age glaciers retreated in the southwest. The first exposed land was the Turtle Mountain area, where large numbers of petroforms and medicine wheels can be found. The first humans in southern Manitoba left behind pottery shards, spear and arrow heads, copper, petroforms,
pictographs, fish and animal bones, and signs of agriculture along the
Red River near Lockport. Eventually there were the aboriginal settlements of
Ojibwa,
Cree, Dene,
Sioux,
Mandan, and
Assiniboine peoples, along with other tribes that entered the area to trade. There were many land trails made as a part of a larger native trading network on both land and water. The Whiteshell Provincial Park region along the Winnipeg River has many old petroforms and may have been a trading centre, or even a place of learning and sharing of knowledge for over 2000 years. The
cowry shells and copper are proof of what was traded as a part of a large trading network to the oceans, and to the larger southern native civilizations along the Mississippi and in the south and southwest. In Northern Manitoba there are areas that were mined for quartz to make arrow heads. For thousands of years there have been humans living in this region, and there are many clues about their ways of life. Ongoing research will be needed to uncover many more artifacts for a more detailed understanding of past peoples and cultures in the Province.
Henry Hudson in 1611 was one of the first Europeans to sail into what is now known as
Hudson Bay. The Nonsuch ship that sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668-1669 was the first trading voyage that led to the formation of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Hudson's Bay Company was given the fur trading rights to the entire Hudson's Bay watershed, that covers land in what is now known as Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Minnesota, North Dakota, and more. This watershed was named
Rupert's Land, after Prince Rupert who helped to form the Hudson's Bay Company. Other traders and explorers from the
British Isles eventually came to the Hudson's Bay shores and went south along many northern Manitoba Rivers. The first European to reach present-day central and southern Manitoba was Sir Thomas Button, who travelled upstream along the
Nelson River and
Lake Winnipeg in 1612 and may have reached somewhere along the edge of the prairies where he reported of seeing a bison. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Vérendrye, visited the Red River Valley in the 1730s as part of opening the area for French exploration and exploitation. Many other French and Metis explorers came from the east and the south by going down the Winnipeg River and down the
Red River. An important French-Canadian population still lives in Manitoba, especially in the
Saint-Boniface district of eastern Winnipeg. Fur trading forts were built by both the NorthWest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company along the many rivers and lakes, and there was often fierce competition with each other in more southern areas.
There are a few possible sources for the name "Manitoba". One is the
Assiniboine words "Mini" and "tobow" meaning "Lake of the Prairie". The other more likely source is the
Cree word "maniotwapow" meaning "the strait of the spirit or manitobau". This latter name is derived from the sound produced by pebbles on a beach on Manitoba Island in Lake Manitoba. This noise is linked to the superstition among the
Assiniboine of the "manitou" beating a drum to create the noise. Another story refers to "Manitou" and "abah" or the Spirit which sits or is located somewhere in southern Manitoba.
The territory was won by the
Kingdom of Great Britain in 1763 as part of the
French and Indian War, and this was a part of
Rupert's Land, the immense trading monopoly territory of the
Hudson's Bay Company that was the entire watershed that flows into Hudson's Bay. Most rivers and water in Manitoba eventually flow north, not south or east as is commonly assumed, and empty into Hudson's Bay. The Hudson Bay Archives is located within
Winnipeg, Manitoba, and preserves the rich history of the fur trading era that occurred along the major water routes of the Rupert's Land area.
The founding of the first agricultural community and settlements in 1811 by
Lord Selkirk, north of the area which is now downtown Winnipeg, resulted in conflict between the British colonists and the Métis who lived and traded near there. Twenty colonists, including the governor, were killed by the Métis in the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816. There was also one Metis man killed as well. Many fur trading forts were also attacked by each side over the many years. Even today, the Metis people are making land claims that they say are a part of what was promised to them in the 1800's.
When Rupert's Land was ceded to Canada in 1869 and incorporated into the
Northwest Territories, a lack of attention to Métis concerns led their leader
Louis Riel to establish a provisional government as part of
The Red River Rebellion. However Louis Riel was pursued by
Garnet Wolseley because of the rebellion, and he fled into exile. He was eventually hanged after being captured in
Saskatchewan. Negotiations between the provisional government and the Canadian government resulted in the creation of the Province of Manitoba and its entry into Confederation in 1870. Originally the province was only 1/18 of its current size and square in shape - it was known as the "postage stamp province." It grew progressively, absorbing land from the Northwest Territories until it attained its current size by reaching 60°N in 1912.
Numbered Treaties were signed in the late 1800's with the chiefs of various tribes that lived in the area now known as Manitoba. These treaties made quite specific promises of land for every family, medicine chests, yearly payments, etc. This led to a reserve system under the jurisdicion of the Federal Government. Presently there are still land claim issues because the proper amount of land that was promised to the native peoples was not given in all cases.
The Manitoba Schools Question showed the deep divergence of cultural values in the territory. The French thought they had been guaranteed a state supported separate school system but instead a grass roots political movement among Protestants in 1888-90 demanded the end of French schools. In 1890 the Manitoba legislature passed a law abolishing French as an official language of the province, and removing funding for Catholic schools. The French Catholic minority asked the federal Government for support; however the
Orange Order and other anti-Catholic forces mobilized nationwide. The Conservatives proposed remedial legislation to over-ride Manitoba's legislation but they in turn were blocked by Liberals, led by
Wilfrid Laurier who opposed the remedial legislation on the basis of provincial rights. Once elected Prime Minister in 1896 Laurier proposed a compromise stating that Catholics in Manitoba could have a Catholic education if there were enough students to warrant it, on a school-by-school basis. Tensions over language remained high in Manitoba for decades to come.
Winnipeg was one of the 4th largest cities in Canada in the early 1900's. This boom town grew quickly from the late 1800's to the early 1900's. There was a lot of outside investors, immigration, railways, trains, and business was booming. Even today one can see the many old mansions and estates that belonged to Winnipeg's ever growing wealthy class. When the Manitoba Legislature was built, it was expected that Manitoba would have a population of 3 million quite soon. Just around the time of World War One the quickly growing city began to cool down as the large amounts of money were no longer invested to the same degree as before the war. Winnipeg eventually fell behind in growth when other major cities in Canada began to boom ahead, such as
Calgary today.
By 1916, in wartime, national unity was at stake. Out of a population of 500,000, there were 30,000 French speakers and 100,000 speakers of German, Ukrainian, Polish and other immigrant tongues. Anglophones insisted on an English-only policy, including a repeal of the compromise that had been worked out on the School Question. The plan was to strengthen the education ministry, upgrade the quality of education, and impose a much stronger attendance law. As the education minister explained:
It is necessary to deal with this law [the bilingual clause] both in our own interests and in the interests of the strangers within our gates who have come to make their homes with us with the purpose of becoming a part of this nation. The first essential to individual progress in any land is to know the language of the country. In an English-speaking country, as this is, a knowledge of English is more necessary than a knowledge of arithmetic. No matter what a man's attainments may be, the doors of opportunity are closed to him if he has not a knowledge of English, the common tongue. . . . We are building for the Canada of tomorrow, and our common school is one of the most important factors in the work. In this Dominion we are building up, under the British flag, a new nationality. We come from many lands and cast in our lot, and from these various factors there must evolve a new nationality which shall be simply Canadian and British. [Morton p 352]
In the 1917 election in the midst of the conscription crisis, the Liberals were split in half and the new Union party carried all but one seat. As the war ended severe discontent among farmers and union members resulted in an upseurge of radicalism. With Bolshevism coming to power in Russia, conservatives were anxious and radicals were energized. The most dramatic episode was the
Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 which shut down most activity for six weeks, starting May 15 until the strike collapsed on June 25 1919 as the workers were gradually returning to their jobs and the Central Strike Committee decided to end the strike. As historian William Morton has explained:
The strike, then, began with two immediate aims and two subsidiary but increasingly important aspects. One aim was the redress of legitimate grievances with respect to wages and collective bargaining; the other was the trial of a new instrument of economic action, the general strike, the purpose of which was to put pressure on the employers involved in the dispute through the general public. The first subsidiary aspect was that the general strike, however, might be a prelude to the seizure of power in the community by Labour, and both the utterances and the policies of the O.B.U. leaders pointed in that direction. The second subsidiary aspect was that, as a struggle for leadership in the Labour movement was being waged as the strike began, it was not made clear which object, the legitimate and limited one, or the revolutionary and general one, was the true purpose of the strike. It is now apparent that the majority of both strikers and strike leaders were concerned only to win the strike. The general public at large, however, subjected to the sudden coercion of the general strike, was only too likely to decide that a revolutionary seizure of power was in view. [Morton 365-6]
In the aftermath eight leaders went on trial, and most were convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy, illegal combinations, and seditious libel; four were aliens who were deported under the Immigration Act. Labor was weakened and divided as a result.
Famers meanwhile were patiently organizing the United Farmers of Manitoba, with plans to contest the 1920 provincial elections. The result was no party had a majority. The Farmers, running against politics as usual, won in 1922, with 30 seats, against 7 Liberals were returned, 6 Conservatives, 6 Labour, and 8 Independents.
Government of Manitoba
Founding of the Legislative Assembly
The
Legislative Assembly of Manitoba was established on July 14 1870. At that time Manitoba attained full fledged rights and responsibilities of self-government as the first Canadian province carved out of the Northwest Territories, control over which had been passed by
Britain to the Government of
Canada in 1869. For its first few decades, Manitoba was known as "postage stamp province" because it was originally square, initially including only the southern 40% of the province's current territory.
The creation of Manitoba out of the Northwest Territories was unusually quick.
Saskatchewan and
Alberta went through a long period of apprenticeship as part of the Northwest Territories until their creation as provinces in 1905.
The decision to make Manitoba a full-fledged province in 1870 came as the result of three things.
- A misunderstanding on the part of the Canadian authorities.
- The rise of nationalism of the Metis.
Initially, the subject of provincial status did not come up during the negotiations between Canada, the
United Kingdom and the Hudson's Bay Company. It was assumed that territorial status was granted in the Act for the Temporary Government of Ruperts' Land in 1869.
Louis Riel first introduced the subject of provincial status to the Committee of Forty appointed by the citizens of Red River in 1870. Riel's proposal to Donald Smith, emissary for the government of Canada, was rejected by the government of
John A. Macdonald.
The list of demands from Riel did goad the government of Canada to act on a proposal of its own on regarding Red River's status. John A. Macdonald introduced the Manitoba Act in the
Canadian House of Commons and pretended that the question of province or territory was of no significance. The bill was given royal assent and Manitoba joined Canada as a province.
It was a significant leap of faith imposing responsible government on Manitoba in 1870 without any adjustment period. It went against all conventional wisdom of the time. However, Macdonald's misunderstanding of territorial versus provinical status, the rise of the Metis people and the burgeoning growth of the United States all compelled him to act in a nation building initiative.
In the years that followed, much like the years that preceded, Manitoba went through many upheavals. However, parliamentary government and the Province that was created in 1870 prevailed.
Winnipeg became the Capital City and grew rapidly to become a major city in
Canada. The present Manitoba Legislature was eventually built with neoclassical designs, and to accomodate
Winnipeg's quickly growing population in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The Legislature was built to democratically represent about 3 million citizens, which was the population that was expected eventually.
Official Language
English and French are official languages of the legislature and courts of Manitoba, according to the Manitoba Act, 1870 :
Either the English or the French language may be used by any person in the debates of the Houses of the Legislature and both those languages shall be used in the respective Records and Journals of those Houses; and either of those languages may be used by any person, or in any Pleading or Process, in or issuing from any Court of Canada established under the Constitution Act, 1867, or in or from all or any of the Courts of the Province. The Acts of the Legislature shall be Printed and published in both those languages. [Manitoba Act, Section 23]
However, with the rise to power of the English-only movement in Manitoba from 1890 onwards, this provision was disregarded in practice and by Manitoban legislation. In April 1890, the Manitoba legislature introduced a measure to abolish the official status of the French language in the legislature, the laws, records and journals, as well as the Courts of Manitoba. Among other things, the Manitoban Legislature ceased to publish legislation in French, but did so in English only. However, in 1985 the
Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Reference re Manitoba Language Rights that §23 still applied, and that legislation published only in English was invalid
Although French is required to be an official language for the purposes of the legislature, legislation, and the courts, the Manitoba Act does not require it to be an official language for the purpose of the executive branch of government Hence, Manitoba's government is not completely bilingual, and as reflected in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, the only bilingual province is
New Brunswick.
The Manitoba French language Services Policy of 1999 is intended to provide a comparable level of provincial government services in both official languages. Services to the public, including public utilities and health services, official documents such as parking tickets and court summonses, court and commission hearings, and government web sites are accessible in both English and French.
Demographics
Population of Manitoba since 1871| Year | Population | Five Year
% change | Ten Year
% change | Rank Among
Provinces |
|---|
| 1871 | 25,228 | n/a | n/a | 8 |
| 1881 | 62,260 | n/a | 146.8 | 6 |
| 1891 | 152,506 | n/a | 145 | 5 |
| 1901 | 255,211 | n/a | 67.3 | 5 |
| 1911 | 461,394 | n/a | 80.8 | 5 |
| 1921 | 610,118 | n/a | 32.2 | 4 |
| 1931 | 700,139 | n/a | 14.8 | 5 |
| 1941 | 729,744 | n/a | 4.2 | 6 |
| 1951 | 776,541 | n/a | 6.4 | 6 |
| 1956 | 850,040 | 9.5 | n/a | 6 |
| 1961 | 921,686 | 8.4 | 18.7 | 6 |
| 1966 | 963,066 | 4.5 | 13.3 | 5 |
| 1971 | 988,245 | 2.3 | 7.2 | 5 |
| 1976 | 1,021,505 | 3.4 | 6.1 | 5 |
| 1981 | 1,026,241 | 0.4 | 3.8 | 5 |
| 1986 | 1,063,015 | 3.6 | 4.1 | 5 |
| 1991 | 1,091,942 | 2.7 | 6.4 | 5 |
| 1996 | 1,113,898 | 2.0 | 4.8 | 5 |
| 2001 | 1,119,583 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 5 |
- Source: Statistics Canada
Ethnic origin- Note: the percentages do not necessarily add up to 100% as multiple responses are allowed. Ethnic origins with less than 3% of the responses are not listed.
...
Manitoba is home to the largest Icelandic population outside of Iceland. There are about 26,000 people with Icelandic ancestry living in Manitoba. About 35% of the Icelandic-Canadian population lives in Manitoba.
Religious groups- Religions that make up less than 1% are not listed.
Economy
Pre-Confederation
Manitoba's early economy was one that depended on mobility and living off the land. A number of native tribes that included the
Cree,
Ojibwa, Dene,
Sioux and
Assiniboine followed herds of
bison and congregated to trade among themselves at key meeting places throughout the province.
The first
fur traders entering the province in the 17th century changed the dynamics of the economy of Manitoba forever. For the first time, permanent settlements of forts were created and communties evolved over time. Most of the trade centred around the fur-trade pf beaver pelts and many other animals. Many native scouts and native maps were used to help the fur traders make their way through the region. Some of the best first maps were made with the help of natives who knew all about the river routes within their traditional home territories. The natural rivers, creeks, and lakes were the most important routes for trade and travel.
The first major diversification of the economy came when
Lord Selkirk brought the first agricultural settlers to an area just north of present day
Winnipeg in 1811. The lack of reliable transportation and an ongoing dispute between the
Hudson Bay Company, the
North West Company and the Métis impeded growth.
The eventual triumph of the
Hudson Bay Company over its competitors ensured the primacy of the fur trade over widespread agricultural colonization. Any trade not sanctioned by the HBC was frowned upon.
It took many years for the
Red River Colony to develop under HBC rule. The Company invested little in infrastructure for the community. It was only when independent traders such as James Sinclair and
Andrew McDermot started competing in trade that improvements to the community started to happen.
By 1849, the HBC faced even greater threats to its monopoly. A Métis fur trader named Pierre Guillaume Sayer was charged with illegal trade by the Hudson Bay Company. Sayer had been trading with
Norman Kittson who resided just beyond the HBC's reach in
Pembina, North Dakota. The court found Sayer guilty but the judge levied no fine or punishment.
In 1853, A second agricultural community started in
Portage la Prairie.
The courts could no longer be used by the HBC to enforce its monopoly. The result was a weakening of HBC rule over the region and laid the foundations of provincehood for Manitoba.
- See also: Corporations based in Manitoba
...
- See also: List of hospitals in Manitoba
Transportation
Transportation & Warehousing contributes approximately $2.2 billion to Manitoba’s GDP. Total employment in the industry is estimated at 34,500.
Manitoba has a rail, air, trucking and marine component to its transportation industry.
Trucking
- The TransCanada Highway was built in the early 1900's, and to this day is still being upgraded. This highway is the major and only highway in Canada that links the east to the west for trade, travel, tourism, and trucking.
- Over 350 for-hire motor carriers with 4 or more vehicles are headquartered in Manitoba. Most of those firms are owned and managed companies.
- The vast majority of Manitoba trucking companies operate either interprovincially or internationally.
- Trucks haul 95% of all land freight in Manitoba. Trucking companies account for 80% of Manitoba's merchandise trade to the United States.
- Five of Canada's twenty-five largest employers in for-hire trucking are headquartered in Manitoba. Three of Canada's 10 largest employers in the for-hire trucking industry are headquartered in Winnipeg.
- $1.18 billion of Manitoba's GDP directly or indirectly comes from trucking. Around 5% or 33,000 people work in the trucking industry.
Rail
- Manitoba has two Class I railways. They are CN and Canadian Pacific Railway. Winnipeg is centrally located on the main lines of both of these continental carriers and both companies maintain large intermodal terminals in the city. CN and CP operate a combined 2,439 kilometres of track within Manitoba. The first railway through Manitoba was the CP Railway, and the tracks were diverted south to make Winnipeg as the capital and centre, and not Selkirk, which is located further north.
- There are a number of small regional and shortlines railways. They are the Hudson Bay Railway, the Southern Manitoba Railway, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Manitoba, Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway, and Central Manitoba Railway. Together, they operate approximately 1,775 kilometres of track within the province.
Air
- Winnipeg International Airport is one of only a few 24 hour, unrestricted airports in Canada. It has a broad range of air passenger and cargo services and served over 3 million passengers in 2003. The airport handles approximately 140,000 tonnes of cargo annually.
- 11 regional passenger carriers, plus 9 smaller/charter carriers operate out of the airport.
- 11 air cargo carriers operate out of the airport.
- 7 freight forwarders operate out of the airport.
...
. It also receives daily transborder service from
UPS.
Air Canada Cargo and Cargojet Airways use the airport as a major hub for national traffic.
Marine
- The Port of Churchill, owned by OmniTRAX is Manitoba's window to the Arctic and to the sea. The port of Churchill is nautically closer to ports in Europe than many other ports in Canada.
- The port has 4 deep-sea berths for the loading and unloading of grain, general cargo and tanker vessels. The port is linked by the Hudson Bay Railway .
- Grain represented 90% of the Port’s traffic in the 2004 shipping season. In that year over 600,000 tonnes of agricultural product was shipped through the port.
Famous Manitobans
- See also: List of Manitobans
