Manitoba

For other uses, see Manitoba (disambiguation).

Manitoba
Country	Canada
Confederation	July 15, 1870 (5th)
Government
• Lieutenant-Governor	John Harvard
• Premier	Gary Doer
Federal representation	Parliament of Canada
House seats	14 of 338 (4.1%)
Senate seats	6 of 105 (5.7%)
Population
• Total	1,342,153
GDP
• Rank	6th
• Total (2005)	$41.933 billion
• Per capita	$35,609 (10th)
Canadian postal abbr.	MB
Postal code prefix	R
Rankings include all provinces and territories

Manitoba is one of Canada's 10 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 (containing over one half the provincial population) 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, Virden, Minnedosa, Emerson, Lockport, Neepawa and Winkler.

A person from Manitoba is called a Manitoban.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Manitoba

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, Whiteshell, 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 (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.

Climate

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 increases from west to east. As Manitoba is far removed from the moderating influences of both mountain ranges and large bodies of water (all of Manitoba's very 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 climate 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.

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.

The central and northern parts of the province - the majority of Manitoba's land area - falls in the subarctic climate zone (Koppen Dfc). This region features long and extremely cold winters and brief, mild summers, with relatively little precipitation.

This has resulted in the capital of the province being nicknamed "Winterpeg". It is common to have overnight lows below -40°C (-40°F) several days each winter across the province (quite frequent in the north), and to have a few weeks that remain below -18°C (0°F). 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, along with temperatures exceeding 32°C (90°F) several times each summer. 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 (35.3%) followed by oilseed (25.8%) and wheat farming (9.8%). 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, larch, arborvitae, 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.

Entering Manitoba from Saskatchewan on the Yellowhead Highway.

Ten largest city
by population

Municipality	2001	1996
Winnipeg	619,544	618,477
Brandon	39,716	39,175
Thompson	13,256	14,385
Portage la Prairie	12,976	13,077
Springfield	12,602	12,162
Hanover	10,789	9,833
St. Andrews	10,695	10,144
Selkirk	9,752	9,881
Steinbach	9,227	8,478
St. Clements	9,115	8,516

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 (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 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" (or Spirit) 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.

File:LowerFortGarry.jpg

Lower Fort Garry, ca.1949

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 Metis man killed as well. Many fur trading forts were also attacked by each side over the many years.

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, the Métis moved in large numbers 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. 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 had been guaranteed a state supported separate school system in the original constitution of Manitoba, but 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 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 one of the 4th largest cities in Canada in the early 1900s. This boom town grew quickly from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. 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 I, 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.

Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg General Strike, June 21 1919.

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 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]

Many more recent historians disagree with Morton's interpretation of the strike and have written considerably better histories of it.

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

Manitoba Legislature

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 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:

• A misunderstanding on the part of the Canadian authorities.
• The rise of nationalism of the Metis.
• Fears of manifest destiny sentiments in the United States, ignoring Americans denials of any such goals.

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 Legislative Building was eventually built with neoclassical designs, and 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 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 (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. [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, 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 required to be 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.) 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.[2] 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
2006*	1,177,765	5.2	5.7	5

*Preliminary 2006 census estimate.

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.

• 22.8% Canadian
• 22.0% English
• 18.1% German
• 17.7% Scottish
• 14.2% Ukrainian
• 13.0% Irish
• 12.6% French
• 9.9% North American Indian
• 6.6% Polish
• 5.1% Métis

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. Over 1 million people live in Manitoba's southern regions, in a small string of cities and towns (Winnipeg, Brandon, etc.) about the size of Ontario's Golden Horseshoe.

Religious groups

• 43.0% Protestant
• 29.3% Roman Catholic
• 4.0% Christian not included elsewhere
• 1.4% Christian Orthodox
• 1.1% Jewish
• 18.6% No religious affiliation

Religions that make up less than 1% are not listed.

Downtown Winnipeg taken from The Forks.

Economy

Pre-Confederation

Manitoba's early economy was one that depended on mobility and living off of the land. A number of Aboriginal Nations 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 (Dermott) 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: List of companies based in Manitoba and List of hospitals in Manitoba

Transportation

Transportation and 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 1900s, 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 James Armstrong Richardson 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. A new airport is being built and scheduled to be completed by 2009.

• 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.
• 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.

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 (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.

Military

Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg (CFB Winnipeg) is a Canadian Forces Base located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Co-located at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson 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 NORAD Region Headquarters. The base is supported by over 3,000 military personnel and civilian employees.

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. 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 NORAD Region.

Two squadrons based in the city are:

• 402 “City of Winnipeg” Squadron. This squadron flies the Canadian-designed and -produced de Havilland Canada CT-142 Dash 8 navigation trainer in support of the Canadian Forces Air Navigation School’s Air Navigators and Airborne Electronic Sensor Operator training programs.

• 435 “Chinthe” Transport and Rescue Squadron. This squadron flies the powerful Lockheed CC-130 Hercules tanker/transport in the airlift search and rescue roles. In addition, 435 Squadron is the only Air Force squadron equipped and trained to conduct air-to-air refueling of fighter aircraft in support of operational and training activities at home and abroad. The CC-130 Hercules tanker is a key asset for the Canadian NORAD Region in its mission to defend Canada and the United States against aerial threats that originate outside or within North American airspace.

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. 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.

The Royal Winnipeg Rifles and The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada are infantry reserve units based at Minto Armouries in Winnipeg.

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.

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.

Famous Manitobans

Main article: List of Manitobans

Manitoba in fiction

• Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Price - Deanna Troi eceived a research inquiry from the Manitoba Journal of Interplanetary Psychology.

Map

File:Manmap.PNG

References

• Community Profile: Manitoba, Canada; Statistics Canada

• Carr, Ian and Robert E. Beamish. Manitoba Medicine: A Brief History (ISBN 0-88755-660-4) (1999)
• Clark, Lovell. ed The Manitoba School Question: majority rule or minority rights? (1968) historians debate the issue
• Chafe, J. W. Extraordinary Tales from Manitoba History (1973)
• Cook, Ramsay. The Politics of John W. Dafoe and the Free Press (1963)
• Dafoe, John W. Clifford Sifton in Relation to His Times (1931)
• Donnelly, M. S. The Government of Manitoba (1963)
• Ellis, J.H. The Ministry of Agriculture in Manitoba, 1870-1970 (1971)
• Ewanchuk, Michael. Pioneer Profiles: Ukrainian Settlers in Manitoba (1981) (ISBN 0-9690768-4-3)
• Raymond M. Hébert. Manitoba's French-Language Crisis: A Cautionary Tale McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004.

ISBN 0-7735-2790-7.

• Kinnear, Mary, ed. 1st Days, Fighting Days: Women in Manitoba History (1987)
• Friesen, Gerald, and Potyondi, Barry. A Guide to the Study of Manitoba Local History (1981)
• Morton, William Lewis. Manitoba: A History (1970) (ISBN 0-8020-6070-6), the standard scholarly history
• Petryshyn, Jaroslav . Peasants in the Promised Land: Canada and the Ukrainians, 1891-1914 (1985)
• Whitcomb, Ed. A Short History of Manitoba (1982) (ISBN 0-920002-15-3)
• Yuzyk, Paul. The Ukrainians in Manitoba: A Social History (1953)

See also

• Manitoba Act
• Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
• Provinces and territories of Canada
• Manitoba cabinet ministers
• Manitoba Hydro
• Manitoba Telecom Services
• List of airports in Manitoba
• List of cities in Canada
• List of Manitoba general elections
• List of Manitoba lieutenant-governors
• List of Manitoba premiers
• List of Manitoba provincial highways
• List of Manitoba regions
• List of communities in Manitoba
• List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols
• Louis Riel
• Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
• Republic of Manitoba (1867-68)
• Parks in Manitoba
• Dominion Land Survey
• Red River Flood, 1997
• Same-sex marriage in Manitoba
• list of rural municipalities in Manitoba
• List of Manitoba School Divisions and Districts
• 20 Largest Cities in Manitoba
• First Nations in Southern Manitoba
• First Nations in the Northern Region of Manitoba
• Scouting in Manitoba

External links

• Manitoba Spirited Energy/Vibrant d'énergie
• Government of Manitoba
• Travel Manitoba
• Manitoba Fishing Information
• The Manitoba School Question
• The Manitoba Historical Society
• Architecture of Manitoba
• The TimeLinks Image Archive
• Review of book about Manitoba's French-Language crisis in the 1980s
• Friendly Rivalries: Manitoba Elections, 1966 -1999