Manitoba

Administrative division of Canada
Also known as Province de Manitoba
Total area: 649,950 square kilometres (250,946 square miles)
 

Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation in 1870 as the fifth province. Its name is taken from Lake Manitoba and is a Native American phrase mea Manitoba, easternmost of the Prairie provinces of Canada, in the central part of the country, bounded on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the north-east by Hudson Bay, on the east by Ontario, on the south by the American states of Minnesota and North Dakota, and on the west by Saskatchewan.
Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation on July 15, 1870, as the fifth province. Manitoba has traditionally been known for its primary economic activities: agriculture, mining, forestry, and fishing. Although Winnipeg is a leading manufacturing centre of interior Canada, in the early 1990s the processing of primary products retained a leading role in the provincial economy.

The name Manitoba is taken from Lake Manitoba and is a Native American phrase meaning "great spirit's strait".
 

Land and Resources

With an area of 649,950 sq km (250,946 sq mi), Manitoba is the sixth largest province of Canada; slightly less than 1 per cent of the land area is owned by the federal government. The province is roughly rectangular in shape, and its extreme dimensions are about 1,210 km (750 mi) from north to south and about 790 km (490 mi) from east to west. Elevations range from sea level along Hudson Bay to 832 m (2,729 ft) a top Baldy Mountain in the south-west. Manitoba's shoreline along Hudson Bay is about 920 km (570 mi) long.
 

Physical Geography

All but the south-western portion of Manitoba lies within the Canadian Shield, a region of ancient volcanic and metamorphic rocks with a heavily glaciated land surface that has numerous lakes and streams. In the north-east and the south-west, sedimentary rocks overlie the shield, while the Hudson Bay Lowland is a portion of the Canadian Shield with a thin cover of sedimentary rock. It is a region of permafrost with soils that are waterlogged and unproductive. The south-west has a sedimentary cover increasing in thickness towards the south and west and a variety of soil types, produced on glacial deposition. Southern Manitoba is dominated by a flat plain. The fertile, heavy clay soils mark the former extent of the huge glacial Lake Agassiz, of which Lakes Manitoba, Winnipeg, and Winnipegosis and Cedar Lake are remnants. The Manitoba Escarpment, a bedrock upland formed by the Porcupine, Riding, and Duck mountains, divides this region into the Manitoba Plain on the east and the Saskatchewan Plain, which rises gently to the west.

All of Manitoba drains into Hudson Bay. The principal rivers are the Winnipeg River and the Red River and its tributary, the Assiniboine River, all of which flow into Lake Winnipeg. The Shield section is liberally scattered with large and small lakes, but the province's largest lake-Lake Winnipeg -is in the south. Rivers and lakes cover nearly one-sixth of Manitoba's total area.
 

Climate

The climate ranges from subarctic in the north to an extreme continental climate in the south. Winters are harsh and summers are moderately warm. The average annual temperature ranges from -15.6° C (4° F) in the north to 1.7° C (35° F) in the south. The average annual precipitation is about 460 mm (18 in); precipitation is highest in the south-east.
 

Plants and Animals

Forest covers more than three-fifths of the total land area of Manitoba; 43 per cent of the forest is of commercial value. Extending across the province in a great sweep from the south-eastern corner to the north-west is the boreal forest, which is dominated by pine and other softwoods. To the south-west this forest grades into the aspen parkland, a zone that contains aspen, poplar, and oak interspersed with grassland. In the north-east, the Hudson Bay Lowlands support only a stunted tree growth, with many areas of muskeg (swamp) and moss vegetation.

Large mammals found in the forested regions include moose, caribou, and elk. Smaller mammals include beaver, lynx, mink, and marten. The aspen parkland provides an excellent habitat for various species of deer, coyote, muskrat, and rabbit, and its areas of hummocky moraine with many ponds provide nesting grounds for vast numbers of migratory waterfowl. Fish include bass, trout, pike, whitefish (such as goldeye), and arctic char.
 

Products and Industries

The Canadian Shield of northern Manitoba contains the major mineral wealth of the province, with mines yielding nickel, copper, and zinc. Other minerals include gold, cobalt, and limestone.

Farm products account for about 4 per cent of the annual gross domestic product, with Manitoba ranking with Saskatchewan as the largest producers of flax in Canada. Other field crops include wheat, canola, barley, and flaxseed, while other farm products include lentils, oats, rye, hay, mustard seed, sugar beet, and potatoes. Commercial fishing is concentrated on Lake Winnipeg. Major species are whitefish, pickerel, perch, sauger, bass, and pike.
Manufacturing is largely based on the processing of agricultural commodities and of mineral and forest resources. The food and beverage industries are the most important. Other leading industries include the manufacture of transport equipment, electrical and electronic products, primary and fabricated metals, printed materials, clothing and textiles, machinery, chemicals, and wood and paper products.
 

Population

According to the 1991 census, Manitoba had 1,091,942 inhabitants, an increase of 2.7 per cent over 1986. The overall population density in 1991 was 1.7 people per sq km (4.4 per sq mi). English was the sole mother tongue of about 73 per cent of the people; about 4 per cent had French as their sole mother tongue. More than 72,000 Native Americans lived in the province. Métis numbered more than 33,000.
 

Education and Cultural Institutions

The first schools were established in the early 19th century by the Hudson's Bay Company. The province's system of public-supported education was established in 1871. In the early 1990s Manitoba had 852 public elementary and secondary schools with a total of some 220,000 students. During the same period the province had 16 institutions of higher education, including the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, the University of Winnipeg (1871), and Brandon University (1899) in Brandon.

Most cultural institutions are concentrated in Winnipeg. Major museums include the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, with important natural history collections; the Winnipeg Art Gallery; the University of Manitoba's Museums of Zoology and Mineralogy; and the Historical Museum of St James-Assiniboia. Winnipeg supports a symphony orchestra, an opera company, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
 

Places of Interest

Manitoba has a number of historical sites. Fort Prince of Wales National Historic Park, near Churchill, includes the remains of a British fort. Lower Fort Garry, near Winnipeg, was built by the Hudson's Bay Company and is now also part of a national historic park. Fort La Reine Pioneer Museum and Village, near Portage la Prairie, offers depictions of Canadian life in the 19th century. The Mennonite Village Museum, which is located near Steinbach, includes a replica of a late 19th-century Mennonite community.
 

Sports and Recreation

Hunting and fishing are extremely popular on Manitoba's numerous lakes and streams, which attract many visitors to the province. Other popular summer activities include camping and boating. The most popular spectator sport, here as elsewhere in Canada, is ice hockey.
 

Government and Politics

Manitoba has a parliamentary form of government. The nominal head of Manitoba's government, the lieutenant-governor, is appointed-normally for five years-by the Canadian governor-general in council. The premier, who usually is the leader of the majority party in the legislature, holds actual power. The premier presides over the executive council (cabinet), members of which hold seats in the legislature. The unicameral Legislative Assembly of Manitoba consists of 57 members who are popularly elected. The assembly sits for a maximum of five years. The province of Manitoba is represented in the Canadian Parliament by six senators, appointed by the governor-general, and 14 elected members of the House of Commons.
 

History

The first European to see Manitoba, probably in 1612, was the English navigator Sir Thomas Button, who explored the Nelson River. In 1682 a trading post was established at Port Nelson, along the shore of Hudson Bay, by the Hudson's Bay Company. The French subsequently explored and established trading posts in the territory but surrendered title and posts to the British in 1763, at the close of the French and Indian War. The first permanent settlement was made in 1812, when a colony was founded for evicted Scottish peasants by Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of Selkirk, in the Assiniboia district, deeded to him by the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1870 the Dominion of Canada bought the territorial rights of the Hudson's Bay Company in the north-west from the British government. When territorial status was subsequently considered, the Métis, fearing the loss of their lands and limitations on their virtual autonomy, rebelled under the leadership of Louis David Riel. Because of the rebellion, Manitoba entered the Dominion, under the terms of the Manitoba Act of 1870, as a tiny province; its boundaries were enlarged in 1881 and 1912.

The population grew slowly from about 25,000 in 1871 to 153,000 in 1891. The Canadian Pacific Railway reached into Manitoba by 1882. Of the newcomers to the province, many came from Ontario, few from Quebec. Eventually this led to an assault on the dualism found in the Manitoba Act, and in 1890 the provincial legislature abolished the official use of French and instituted a non-denominational public school system. The latter move sparked the lengthy Manitoba schools controversy, which was not resolved until the so-called Compromise of 1897 allowed limited religious instruction after school and some bilingual teaching.
A surge of immigration brought Manitoba's population up to 461,000 by 1911. Virtually all the agricultural land was settled. With wheat the leading crop, Manitoba became the granary of Canada. Winnipeg emerged as the commercial and industrial capital of the Prairie provinces. Rapid growth and inflation during World War I produced an explosive mix of class and ethnic tensions in the city, which erupted over the Winnipeg general strike on 1919, the most serious labour dispute in Canada's history. The authorities, fearing Communist infiltration among the strikers, responded with repression. The strike was broken, but Winnipeg politics remained polarized for at least a generation.

In 1920 the United Farmers of Manitoba (UFM) joined with other agrarian groups to sponsor the western Progressive party, which planned to challenge railways, banks, and eastern Canada. The UFM secured control of the provincial government in the general election of 1922, installing as premier John Bracken. Bracken led Progressive and coalition governments from 1922 until 1943. The stability of provincial politics reflected the slow growth of the economy and population. Industry surpassed agriculture as a source of wealth by the late 1920s. After 1943 coalition governments continued until Bracken's successors, Stuart Sinclair Garson and Douglas Lloyd Campbell.

Party government did not really return until Dufferin Roblin became prime minister as a Progressive Conservative in 1958. He won three more elections before resigning in 1968. His successor, Walter C. Weir, was defeated in 1969 by the New Democratic party (NDP), led by Edward Richard Schreyer. The party formed the first social democratic government in the province's history and established its position as the principal rival to the Progressive Conservatives. Sterling Lyon, a Conservative, became premier in 1977, but the NDP came back in the 1981 elections. In 1990 the Conservatives secured a majority.