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A Look at the Provinces, Part IV: Manitoba

© David Newman

This is the fourth article in the "A Look a the Provinces" series. Manitoba is the most eastern of the prairie Provinces. Situated between Saskatchewan and Ontario, it has an area of 649,950 square kilometres and has a population of 1,100,000 people (1991 census). The Capital is Winnipeg. It joined confederation in 1870.

To the western part of the Province are the Canadian Prairies, in the east, the Canadian Shield. In the Canadian Shield there are many lakes and rivers including one of the largest (Non-Great Lakes) lakes in Canada, Lake Winnipeg. The Manitoba Lowlands are composed of swamps, lakes and forests.

There were two Fur Trading Companies who explored Manitoba, The Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. After a while the Metis, of European (French) and Amerindian parentage, took up a large portion of the population. When Thomas Douglas built a farm on the Red River in 1812, the Metis rebelled but peace was restored in 1821. In 1869, Manitoba was sold to the Dominion of Canada's Government from the Hudson's Bay Company. When this happened, the Metis, under the leadership of Louis Riel, rebelled again, for fear of the invasion their land by the British Canadians. Their Rights were respected (somewhat) in the Manitoba Act of 1870 (making Manitoba a small Square Province). That's basically Manitoba's History (apart from selling a hockey team to Phoenix...).

Manitoba is one of the more prosperous provinces of Canada. The agricultural, manufacturing and mining sectors are growing. The Agriculture is mainly wheat and livestock. Manufactures are most importantly food processing, metals, machinery transportation equipment and clothing. The minerals most mined in Manitoba are nickel, zinc and copper. Oil, like in Alberta and Saskatchewan has been found in Manitoba near a town called Virden.

More than half the population of Manitoba live in Winnipeg as 75% of the population of Manitoba is urban. The population is 43% British and other ethnic groups are French Canadian, German, Ukrainian Dutch Scandinavian, Finnish and Amerindians.

Fourteen members in the Canadian Parliament and six in the senate represent the province of Manitoba. The Manitoba Legislature is composed of 57 members. The Premier of Alberta at this moment is Gary Filmon of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, first elected in 1988, re-elected in 1990 and in 1995. For the past thirty years the government in Manitoba has been a back and forth between the New Democrats and the Progressive Conservatives. The Official Opposition is the New Democratic Party of Manitoba.