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A province of south-central Canada. It was admitted to the confederation in 1870. Originally part of a 1670 grant to the Hudson's Bay Company, it was largely settled by immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Winnipeg is the capital and the largest city. Population: 1,180,000.
Manitoban Man'i·to'ban adj. & n.
For more information on Manitoba, visit Britannica.com.
Geography
Easternmost of the Prairie Provinces, Manitoba is bounded on the N by Nunavut (with a northeast shoreline on Hudson Bay), on the E by Ontario, on the S by Minnesota and North Dakota, and on the W by Saskatchewan. The south and central part of Manitoba was once covered by Pleistocene Lake Agassiz; as its waters receded into Hudson Bay, it left behind numerous lakes (the largest being Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Winnipegosis) and rivers (including the Nelson, Churchill, and Hayes) that flow northeast into the bay. In some places underlying rock formations were swept bare; in others they were covered with rich deposits of black loam. An expanse of almost uninhabited tundra surrounds the port of Churchill.
Extending south from Churchill and east from Lake Winnipeg, the topography is that of the Canadian Shield; limited areas have been cleared for general farming and dairying, and mineral and timber resources have been partly developed. Southern Manitoba is dominated by lakes, with Lake Winnipeg paralleled in the west by Winnipegosis and Manitoba. Most of the province's population is concentrated in the river valleys south of these lakes. To the west and north of the Red River valley, the land rises in an escarpment extending into the plateaus of the Pembina, Turtle, Riding, Duck, and Porcupine mountains. Much of this heavily forested area has been set off as reserves, and the Riding Mt. area is a national park.
Winnipeg is the capital and the largest city, accounting for over half of the province's population in its metropolitan area. Other important cities are Brandon, Thompson, Portage la Prairie, and Selkirk.
Economy and Higher Education
In S Manitoba are expanses of wheat, barley, oats, rye, and flax. The well-settled Souris Plains in the southwest are especially famous for their wheat fields. Canada's wheat industry originated in Manitoba, whose bread wheat has set standards for the world. Grain is shipped from Churchill (the only port in the Prairie Provinces) during the three ice-free months of the year. Although agriculture has been continually extended—especially in mixed farming, dairying, and poultry and stock raising—manufacturing has nevertheless displaced it as the leading industry in the province. Foods, printed materials, clothing, electrical items, chemicals, furniture, leather, and transportation equipment are major products.
Continuing developments in mining, pulp and paper manufacturing, and extensive hydroelectric production promise to preserve Manitoba's industrial growth. In the southwest, near Brandon, are large oil reserves, and the municipal districts of Flin Flon and The Pas, on the Saskatchewan River, are gateways to the rich mineral deposits (chiefly nickel, copper, and zinc) and timberlands of the central west; the mines at Thompson provide most of Manitoba's nickel. Beluga whales are still caught by native fishermen at Churchill, Lake Winnipeg has important fisheries, and Manitoba ranks third among the provinces in the production of (now chiefly farm-raised) fur.
Brandon Univ. is at Brandon, and the Univ. of Manitoba and the Univ. of Winnipeg are at Winnipeg.
History and Politics
The history of Manitoba began along Hudson Bay. The search for the elusive Northwest Passage to the Pacific drew such explorers as Henry Hudson, Thomas Button, Pierre Radisson, and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers, some of whom returned to England laden with beaver furs. To exploit this fur wealth, Charles II granted (1670) the Hudson's Bay Company propriety over all the lands draining into Hudson Bay. This vast area included the present-day province of Manitoba, then occupied by the Assiniboin, the Ojibwa, and the Cree. The company established a trading post at Port Nelson and soon extended its operations south to the strategic Red River valley. In 1717, Fort Prince of Wales was built at the mouth of the Churchill River (rebuilt in stone 1732–71, it is now in Fort Prince of Wales National Historic Park).
Manitoba was explored and posts were established by the French as well as by the British; their rival claims were resolved when England's conquest of Canada in the French and Indian Wars was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Scotsmen took over much of the French fur trade, organized the North West Company, and challenged the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company. A crisis came when the earl of Selkirk established the Red River Settlement at present-day Assiniboine in North West Company territory. The resulting violence deterred colonization until the merger of the two companies in 1821. From then until 1870, when the Hudson's Bay Company sold its vast domain to the newly created confederation of Canada, that company was in sole control, and settlement of the area increased.
Prearrangements for the transfer of the land to the new dominion government led to conflict between government representatives and Métis (people of mixed European–indigenous Canadian ancestry), who had long enjoyed almost total autonomy under the Hudson's Bay Company's rule. Fearing political persecution and the loss of their land, they staged (1869) the Red River Rebellion under the leadership of Louis Riel. The rebellion was nominally successful and the Métis were granted land and cultural rights, but after Manitoba was organized as a province in 1870, most of the Métis were harassed into moving farther west.
Agricultural settlement in Manitoba proceeded slowly, but when the railroads came (1870 and 1881), they provided access to grain markets on the Great Lakes, and during the 1880s the population doubled. Manitoba's area was enlarged in 1881, and in 1912 it was given its present extension to Hudson Bay. The depression of 1913 and the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 ended this period of prosperity, during which Winnipeg had served as a great transportation center. With the completion of the Hudson Bay Railway to Churchill in 1929, however, the province was in a position to use the shorter sea route eastward.
During the last part of the 19th cent. and the first part of the 20th, the Canadian government advertised for immigrants to settle the prairies, and huge numbers of Russians, Poles, Estonians, Scandinavians, Icelanders, and Hungarians responded. The largest single immigrant group was the Ukrainians, who now constitute over 11% of the population and are an important part of Manitoban culture. The province provided a multilingual school system from 1897 to 1916 but abolished it when the number of ethnic groups requesting such facilities grew too large. Further immigration came with World War I when American pacifist sects (e.g., Mennonites and Hutterites), seeking to avoid military service, set up colonies of their own in the province. Manitoba still has problems amalgamating its many ethnic groups, including the Métis, and indigenous groups suffer high unemployment and related ills.
Manitoba has alternated politically between socialist (New Democratic party) and conservative (Progressive Conservative party) governments since the 1950s. Progressive Conservative Sterling Lyon was elected in 1977 after promising to reduce the provincial debt, but he was defeated in 1981 by New Democrat Howard Pawley. Lyon's was the only one-term government in Manitoba history. Conservatives regained control of the government in 1989 under Gary Filmon, who held office until he was defeated by the New Democrat Gary Doer (in the fourth race between the two leaders) in 1999. Doer and the New Democrats were returned to power in 2003 and 2007.
Manitoba sends 6 senators and 14 representatives to the national parliament.
Bibliography
See W. L. Morton, Manitoba: A History (2d ed. 1967); J. A. Jackson, The Centennial History of Manitoba (1970); Manitoba: Past and Present, ed. by D. Dawes (tr. 1971); F. McGuinness and K. S. Coates, Manitoba: The Province and the People (1987).
Province in central Canada, bordered to the north by the Northwest Territories, to the northeast by Hudson Bay, to the east by Ontario, to the south by Minnesota and North Dakota, and to the west by Saskatchewan. Winnipeg is the capital and largest city.
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| Motto: Gloriosus et Liber (Latin: Glorious and free) | |||||
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| Capital | Winnipeg | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largest city | Winnipeg | ||||
| Official languages | English | ||||
| Government | |||||
| - Lieutenant-Governor | John Harvard | ||||
| - Premier | Gary Doer (NDP) | ||||
| Federal representation | in Canadian Parliament | ||||
| - House seats | 14 | ||||
| - Senate seats | 6 | ||||
| Confederation | July 15, 1870 (5th) | ||||
| Area | Ranked 8th | ||||
| - Total | km² ( sq mi) | ||||
| - Land | km² ( sq mi) | ||||
| - Water (%) | km² ( sq mi) (14.5%) | ||||
| Population | Ranked 5th | ||||
| - Total (2007) | 1,186,679 (est.)[1] | ||||
| - Density | /km² (/sq mi) | ||||
| GDP | Ranked 6th | ||||
| - Total (2006) | C$44,757 billion[2] | ||||
| - Per capita | C$38,001 (8th) | ||||
| Abbreviations | |||||
| - Postal | MB | ||||
| - ISO 3166-2 | CA-MB | ||||
| Time zone | UTC-6 | ||||
| Postal code prefix | R | ||||
| Flower | Prairie Crocus | ||||
| Tree | White Spruce | ||||
| Bird | Great Grey Owl | ||||
| Web site | www.gov.mb.ca | ||||
| Rankings include all provinces and territories | |||||
Manitoba (IPA: /mæn.ɪ.toʊ.bʌ/) is one of Canada's 10 provinces, with a population of 1,182,921 (2007) . 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. The word "Manitoba" is etymologically related to the native word "manitou" which means spirit.
Its capital and largest city (containing over one half the provincial population) is Winnipeg, with a population of over 600,000. Other cities with more than 10,000 people are Brandon, Thompson, Portage la Prairie, and Steinbach. A person from Manitoba is called a Manitoban.
Manitoba is located at the longitudinal centre of Canada, although it is considered to be part of Western Canada. It borders Saskatchewan to the west, Ontario to the east, Nunavut and 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 lake in the world[3], Lake Winnipeg, along with two other 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 an intact watershed left in the world. The large rivers that flow into the east side of Lake Winnipeg's basin are pristine, with no major developments along them. Many uninhabited islands can be found along the eastern shore of this lake. There are thousands of lakes across the province.[4] Important watercourses include the Red, Assiniboine, Nelson, Winnipeg, Hayes, Whiteshell, and Churchill Rivers.
Most of Manitoba's inhabited south lies within the prehistoric bed of Glacial Lake Agassiz[5]. 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 [6] (2,727 ft) 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. [7]
Only the southern parts of the province support extensive agriculture. The most common
type of farm found in rural areas is: cattle farming (34.6%)[8] followed by other grains (19.0%)[8] and oilseed
(7.9%)[8]. Around 12% of Canadian farmland is in Manitoba.[9] The eastern, southeastern, and northern reaches of the province range through
coniferous forests, muskeg,
Canadian Shield, and tundra in the far north.
Forests make up about 26.3 million hectares (or 48%) of the province's 54.8 million hectare land area. [10] The forests generally consist of
Due to its location in the centre of the North American continent, Manitoba has a very extreme climate. In general, temperatures and precipitation decrease from south to north, and precipitation also decreases from east to west. As Manitoba is far removed from the moderating influences of both mountain ranges and large bodies of water (all of Manitoba's large lakes freeze during the winter months), 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. There are three main climatic regions.
The extreme southwestern corner has a semi-arid mid-latitude steppe climate (Koppen climate classification BSk). This region is somewhat drier than other parts of southern Manitoba and very drought-prone. It is very cold and windy in the winter and also the region most prone to blizzards in the winter due to the openness of the landscape. Summers are generally warm to hot, with low to moderate humidity.[11]
The remainder of southern Manitoba, including Winnipeg, falls in the humid continental climate zone (Koppen Dfb). Temperatures here are very similar to the semi-arid climate zone, but this region is the most humid area in the Prairie Provinces with moderate precipitation.[12] The bitterly cold winters in this region have led to Winnipeg being nicknamed "Winterpeg".
The central and northern parts of the province - the majority of Manitoba's land area - fall in the subarctic climate zone (Koppen Dfc). This region features long and extremely cold winters and brief, mild summers, with relatively little precipitation. It is common to have overnight lows as low as -40°C (-40°F) several days each winter across the province (quite frequently in the north), and to have a few weeks that remain below -18°C (0°F).[13]
In the summer months the climate is influenced by low-pressure air masses originating in the Gulf of Mexico, often clashing with drier airmasses in the north and west, which results in hot and humid conditions and frequent thunderstorms. Southern parts of the province, located just north of Tornado Alley, experience a few tornadoes each year, with 15 confirmed touchdowns in 2006. In 2007, on June 22 and 23, numerous tornadoes touched down, including an F5[2] tornado that devastated parts of Elie, and an F3 tornado that was captured on video.[14] Temperatures exceed 35°C (95°F) numerous times each summer, and the combination of heat and humidity can bring the humidex value to the mid-40's, and the dewpoint to the upper 20's.[15].
The geographical area now named Manitoba was inhabited shortly after 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.[16] The first human habitants of 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.[17] The cowry shells and copper found in this area 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 some areas were mined for quartz to make arrowheads. 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 more artifacts to lend to a more detailed understanding of past peoples and cultures in Manitoba.
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 to reach Manitoba; it 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, covering land in what is now 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 the 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 seeing a bison. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Vérendrye, visited the Red River Valley in the 1730s to help open the area for French exploration and exploitation. Many other French and Métis explorers came from the east and south by going down the Winnipeg River and the Red River. An important French-Canadian population (Franco-Manitobains) 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 between the two in more southern areas. The territory was won by Great Britain in 1763 as part of the French and Indian War.
There are a few possible sources for the name "Manitoba". The more likely is that it comes from Cree or Ojibwe and means "strait of the Manitou (spirit)". It may also be from the Assiniboine for "Lake of the Prairie".[18][19]
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 1812 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, in which the settlers fired the first shots. There was also one Métis man killed. Many fur trading forts were also attacked during this period.
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 elected leader Louis Riel to establish a provisional government as part of The Red River Rebellion. 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. However, Louis Riel was pursued by Garnet Wolseley because of the rebellion, and he fled into exile. The Métis were blocked by the Canadian government in their attempts to obtain land promised to them as part of Manitoba's entry into confederation. Facing racism from the new flood of white settlers from Ontario, large numbers of Métis moved to what would become Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Originally, the province of Manitoba 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 1800s with the chiefs of various First Nations 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. There are still land claim issues because the proper amount of land promised to the native peoples was not always given.
The Manitoba Schools Question showed the deep divergence of cultural values in the territory. The French had been guaranteed a state-supported separate school system in the original constitution of Manitoba, but a grassroots 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 Catholic teaching for 30 minutes at the end of the day if there were enough students to warrant it, on a school-by-school basis. Tensions over language remained high in Manitoba (and nationwide) for decades to come.
Winnipeg was the 4th largest city in Canada by the early 1900s. A boomtown, it grew quickly from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. There were a lot of outside investors, immigrants and railways. Business was booming. Even today, one can see the many old mansions and estates that belonged to Winnipeg's growing wealthy class. When the Manitoba Legislature was built, it was expected that Manitoba would have a population of 3 million quite soon. Around the beginning of World War I, the quickly growing city began to cool down as 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.
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
(over wheat prices) and union members (over wage rates) resulted in an upsurge 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. It began
May 15 and continued until the strike collapsed on June 25
| “ | 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] | ” |
More recently, many historians have disagreed with Morton's interpretation of the strike and have written considerably different histories of it.
In the aftermath of the strike 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. Farmers, meanwhile, were patiently organizing the United Farmers of Manitoba, with plans to contest the 1920 provincial elections. The result was that no party held a majority. The Farmers, running against politics as usual, won in 1922, with 30 seats, against 7 returning Liberals, 6 Conservatives, 6 Labour, and 8 Independents.
Manitoba is governed by a unicameral legislature, the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, which operates under the Westminster system of government. The executive branch is formed by the majority party and the party leader is the Premier of Manitoba, the head of government. The head of state is represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, who is appointed by the Governor General of Canada on advice of the Prime Minister of Canada. The head of state is mainly a ceremonial and a figurative role today.
The legislative arm of the Government of Manitoba consists of the 57 Members elected to represent the people of Manitoba. The horseshoe arrangement of the members seats within the Chamber is unique to Canada.[20]
Manitoba's primary political parties are the New Democratic Party of Manitoba, the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba and the Liberal Party of Manitoba.
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 the "postage stamp province" because it was originally square, initially including only the southern 40% of the province's current territory. (The northern part lay in Rupert's Land, whose area was eventually divided by the Government of Canada between the provinces that bounded it and the NWT.)
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 resulted from three influences:
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 into acting 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 provincial status, the rise of the Métis 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 Legislative Building was eventually built with neoclassical designs. It was built to accommodate Winnipeg's quickly growing population in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Legislature was built to democratically represent about 3 million citizens, which was the expected population of the province.
The current premier of Manitoba is Gary Doer of the NDP (New Democratic Party). He is currently serving his third mandate with a majority government of 36 seats. The Progressive Conservative Party holds 19 seats, and the Liberal Party (which does not have official party status) has 2. The last election was held Tuesday, May 22, 2007.
English and French are the official languages of the legislature and courts of Manitoba, according to the Manitoba Act, 1870 (which forms part of the Canadian constitution):
| “ | 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. [21] | ” |
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 (so that Manitoba did not descend into a state of lawlessness, unilingual legislation was declared valid for a temporary period, to give the government of Manitoba time to issue translations.)
Although French is an official language for the purposes of the legislature, legislation, and the courts, the Manitoba Act (as interpreted by the Supreme Court of Canada) does not require it to be an official language for the purpose of the executive branch of government (except when the executive branch is performing legislative or judicial functions.)[22] Hence, Manitoba's government is not completely bilingual, and as reflected in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, the only completely 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.[3] 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.
According to the 2001 Canadian census,[4] the largest ethnic group in Manitoba is English (22.1%), followed by German (18.2%), Scottish (17.7%), Ukrainian (14.3%), Irish (13.0%), French (12.6%), First Nations (9.9%), Polish (6.7%), Métis (5.2%), and Dutch (4.7%) - although almost a quarter of all respondents also identified their ethnicity as "Canadian."
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 |
| 2006* | 1,177,765 | 5.2 | 5.7 | 5 |
*Preliminary 2006 census estimate.
| City | 2006 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|
| Winnipeg | 641,483 | 626,956 |
| Brandon | 41,511 | 39,716 |
| Thompson | 13,446 | 13,256 |
| Portage la Prairie | 12,773 | 13,019 |
| Steinbach | 11,066 | 9,227 |
| Selkirk | 9,553 | 9,772 |
| Winkler | 9,106 | 7,943 |
| Dauphin | 7,906 | 8,085 |
| Morden | 6,547 | 6,159 |
| The Pas | 5,765 | 6,030 |
Manitoba's early economy depended on mobility and living off of the land. A number of Aboriginal Nations (including 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 communities evolved over time. Most of the economy centred around the trade of beaver pelts and other furs. Many native scouts and native maps were used to help the fur traders make their way through the region. Some of the best early maps were made with the help of natives who knew 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 the 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 (Dermott) started competing in trade that improvements to the community began.
By 1849, the HBC faced even greater threats to its monopoly. A Métis fur trader named Pierre Guillaume Sayer was charged with illegal trading 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.
Transportation and warehousing contributes approximately $2.2 billion to Manitoba’s GDP. Total employment in the industry is estimated at 34,500.[25]
Manitoba has a rail, air, road and marine component to its transportation industry.
The Trans-Canada Highway built between 1950 and 1971 crosses the province from east to west. Trucks haul 95% of all land freight in Manitoba, and 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 and 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.
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.
A number of small regional and shortline railways exist in the province. 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.
Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport is one of only a few 24-hour unrestricted airports in Canada, and is part of the National Airports System. It has a broad range of passenger and cargo services and served over 3 million people in 2003. The airport handles approximately 140,000 tonnes of cargo annually. A new airport terminal building is being built and is scheduled to be completed by 2009.
Eleven regional passenger carriers and nine smaller/charter carriers operate out of the airport, as well as 11 air cargo carriers and 7 freight forwarders. Winnipeg is a major sorting facility for both FedEx and Purolator. It also receives daily transborder service from UPS. Air Canada Cargo and Cargojet Airways use the airport as a major hub for national traffic.
The Port of Churchill, owned by OmniTRAX, is Manitoba's window to the Arctic and the sea. The port of Churchill is nautically closer to ports in Europe than many other ports in Canada. It 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 (also owned by OMNITRAX). 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.
Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg (CFB Winnipeg) is a Canadian Forces Base located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Co-located at the Winnipeg International
Airport, CFB Winnipeg is home to many flight operations support divisions, as well as several training schools. It is also
the 1 Canadian Air Division/Canadian
17 Wing of the Canadian Armed Forces is based in Winnipeg near the international airport. The Wing is comprised of three squadrons and six schools.[27] It also provides support to the Central Flying School. Excluding the three levels of government, 17 Wing is the largest employer in the city.
The Wing also supports 113 units stretching from Thunder Bay, to the
Saskatchewan/Alberta border and from the 49th Parallel to the high Arctic. 17 Wing also acts as a deployed
operating base for CF-18 Hornet fighter-bombers assigned to the Canadian
Two squadrons based in the city are:
For many years, Winnipeg was the home of The Second Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, or 2 PPCLI. Initially, the battalion was based at the Fort Osborne Barracks near present day Osborne Village.[30] They eventually moved to the Kapyong Barracks located in the River Heights/Tuxedo part of Winnipeg. Since 2004, the 550 men and women of the battalion have operated out of Canadian Forces Base Shilo near Brandon.[30]
The Royal Winnipeg Rifles and The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada are infantry reserve units based at Minto Armouries in Winnipeg.[31]
Canadian Forces Base Shilo (or CFB Shilo) is an Operations and Training base of the Canadian Armed Forces located 35 km east of Brandon, Manitoba. During the 1990s, Canadian Forces Base Shilo was also designated as an Area Support Unit, which acts as a local base of operations for south-west Manitoba in times of Military and Civil Emergency.[32]
CFB Shilo is the home of the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery , the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (2PPCLI)—both battalions of the 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group—as well as being the Home Station of the Royal Canadian Artillery.
In addition, CFB Shilo lodges training units such as the Western Area Training Centre Detachment Shilo and the Communications Reserve School.
It also serves as a base for some support units of Land Force Western Area, including 731 Signals Squadron.[32]
