Manitoba (redirected from Manitoba, towns and cities)

Manitoba (mănĭtō`bə), province (2001 pop. 1,119,583), 250,934 sq mi (650,930 sq km), including 39,215 sq mi (101,580 sq km) of water surface, W central Canada.

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.

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).

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Manitoba

Province (pop., 2006 est: 1,148,401), central Canada. It is bounded by Saskatchewan, Nunavut, Hudson Bay, Ontario, and the U.S.; its capital is Winnipeg. About three-fifths of its territory is covered by the Canadian Shield, an area of rocks, forests, and rivers. The region was first inhabited by the Inuit (see Eskimo) and by the Cree, Assiniboin, and Ojibwa peoples. The Hudson's Bay Co. opened Manitoba to European influence, and the region became a focus of French and British competition for Canadian fur trade dominance; it was ceded by France to Britain in 1763. The Métis rebellion led to the passage of the Manitoba Act in 1870, making it the fifth province of the Dominion of Canada. Steamboat and rail transportation opened the province to settlers from Europe in the late 19th century. Though much of the province's economy is based on farming, lumbering, mining, and heavy industry, technology-based industries have become important to an expanding Winnipeg.