Why is manitoba important

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Popular Searches. Things To Do Find your next adventure in Manitoba. Learn More. Smallpox epidemic originating in Mexico City in decimates First Nations populations. David Thompson reaches the Souris River. Great flood almost destroys the Selkirk Settlement, causing many settlers to leave. First St. Upper Fort Garry is constructed. Trade with St. Paul, Minnesota opens. Louis Riel is born at St. First contingent of Grey Nuns arrives at St. Archbishop Tache arrives at St.

Arrival of British troops who were to be stationed in the colony. Construction of Lower Fort Garry is completed. A plague of large grasshoppers in Red River lead to famine in the settlement. First session of the first Manitoba Legislature opens. Attempted Fenian raid at Fort Daer. First public school opens in Winnipeg. First telegram sent from Manitoba. Fort Osborne Barracks are built at the site of the present Legislative Building.

First gas-fueled street light in Winnipeg. City of Winnipeg is incorporated. Lake St. Martin Indian Residential School, first such facility in Manitoba, opens.

First commercial export of wheat from Manitoba to a mill at Toronto. Manitoba Curling Club is formed. Law Society of Manitoba is formed. First Jewish immigrants settle permanently in Manitoba. First mail to travel by train leaves Winnipeg. Town of Emerson is incorporated. Boundaries of Manitoba are extended westward and northward. First electric light appears on Main Street in Winnipeg.

The walls of Upper Fort Garry are demolished. Standard time is adopted throughout the province. First block of pavement laid in Winnipeg. North West Rebellion. Women are first allowed to vote in municipal elections. First curling bonspiel is held in Winnipeg.

Manitoba Legislature abolishes French as an official language in the province. First party of Ukrainian settlers reach Winnipeg. First electric street cars in Winnipeg.

Rodmond P. Roblin becomes Premier of Manitoba. Winnipeg street cars begin to run on Sunday. Alpine Club of Canada is founded at Winnipeg. A strike against the Winnipeg Street Railway Company draws massive public support. The telephone system is purchased by the Manitoba government. Winnipeg Stock Exchange is incorporated.

Knowles Home for Boys is founded. New boundaries of Manitoba are announced, extending to their present extent. Winnipeg Art Gallery is established. Political Equality League is founded to fight for female suffrage. Fort Garry Hotel opens its doors. Contracts are signed to construct the entire Hudson Bay Railway. Compulsory Education Act comes into force.

Manitoba Temperance Act is passed and Prohibition begins. Changes to the School Act bring an end to bilingual education in Manitoba. Ban on public meetings owing to a world-wide flu epidemic. Armistice Day concludes the First World War.

Opening of the first Manitoba Musical Festival. Aqueduct bringing Shoal Lake water to Winnipeg is completed. Woodsworth is elected to Parliament. Prohibition Act of is repealed and the sale of beer and light wine resumes. Manitoba Pool Elevators is incorporated. Hudson Bay Railway to Churchill is completed. Winnipeg Football Club is founded. The price of No. The Provincial Savings Office bank is forced to close.

Canadian Wheat Board is established with headquarters at Winnipeg. The slowly recovering agricultural economy is laid low again by a new wave of drought. Royal visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.

First television broadcast by CBC Winnipeg. Official Time Act is passed, mandating the entire province to adopt daylight saving time.

Pan American Games are hosted in Winnipeg. Boniface Basilica is destroyed by fire. Official opening of the Red River Floodway. First Folklorama is celebrated after being held under other names from to Manitoba Museum opens. Manitobans begin the process to convert from imperial to metric units of measurement. Several urban and rural municipalities unite to form the modern-day City of Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Jets win the final World Hockey Association championship. Winnipeg Tribune closes. Sharon Carstairs becomes leader of the provincial Liberal party. Susan Thompson becomes the first female Mayor of Winnipeg. Pan American Games are hosted in Winnipeg for the second time.

Catastrophic flooding around Lake Manitoba. NHL hockey returns to Winnipeg with the purchase of a franchise by the Chipman family. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada submits its final report. Blue Bombers win the Grey Cup. A coronavirus pandemic causes over deaths in Manitoba. His government survived two terms; during its years in office, many social reforms were introduced and government activity in the private sector was expanded.

Between and , there was a dramatic realignment of provincial politics, beginning with the virtual disappearance of the provincial Liberal Party and the rise to power of the New Democratic Party under Schreyer and Howard Pawley. In , Sterling Lyon led the Conservative Party to victory on a platform of reducing the provincial debt and returning to free enterprise, but his government lasted only one term. In , the NDP returned to power under Pawley.

They were re-elected in The Lyon government, in fact, was the only one-term government in Manitoba's history to that time, as the political tradition of the province has been notable for its long-term stability, particularly during the era of the United Farmers of Manitoba and later coalition governments.

Typical of the social democratic initiatives of the NDP was the introduction of a government-run automobile insurance plan and the plan to purchase Inter-City Gas Co. The government's attempt to increase bilingual services within the province aroused old passions, however, and was abandoned. Filmon's government was precarious, and the Liberal opposition was extremely vocal in its opposition to the Meech Lake Accord see also Meech Lake Accord: Document.

Filmon went to the polls immediately following the death of the Accord in and eked out a slim majority victory. This majority enabled Filmon to finally dictate the legislative agenda, and he began concentrating his government's efforts at bringing the province's rising financial debt under control. His government's success in this endeavour won Filmon an increased majority in April In the election, Selinger returned with a majority government.

While Selinger survived the leadership race, he was ousted as premier about a year later. Pallister campaigned on promises of austerity. He vowed to reverse an increase to the provincial sales tax, as well as eliminate a budget deficit. In the summer of , Pallister called a general election about a year earlier than required by law. According to Pallister, his government had met most of its promises and needed a new mandate from voters.

On 10 September , the PCs again won a majority government, this time taking 36 seats. On 1 September , Pallister resigned as premier. He resigned his seat in the legislature on 4 October. On 30 October, the Progressive Conservative Party held a leadership race. Glover refused to concede and launched a legal challenge. Stefanson, however, was sworn in as premier on 2 November. Most medical services in Canada are free. Money from taxes is pooled together to fund a health care system often referred to as Medicare.

While the federal government sets guidelines, each province and territory is responsible for administering its own health care insurance plan; funding for the plan comes from both governments. As with other provinces and territories, certain services in Manitoba are not covered by the provincial health insurance plan.

These include going to the dentist, prescription drugs, and routine eye exams for those between the ages of 19 and In Manitoba, the government department responsible for administering the health care system is Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living.

See also Health Policy. The fight began shortly after the establishment of Manitoba as a province and led to a series of events now known as the Manitoba Schools Question. In , the Manitoba Act created the province of Manitoba, and also established separate Catholic and Protestant school systems; Catholics would receive instruction in French, Protestants in English.

However, in , the provincial government under the leadership of Thomas Greenway stopped funding Catholic and Protestant schools, creating a single, English-language public school system. If Catholics, most of whom were francophone, wanted to receive instruction in both their religion and language they would have to fund the schools themselves.

Some religious education would be provided in the public school system, and in certain situations, instruction in languages other than English. Teaching of any language other than English, or using another language to instruct a class, became prohibited. After a hiatus of over 30 years, French began to be reinstated in the public school system in At this time, French could be taught as a foreign language in secondary schools.

In , French began to be taught in grades 4 through 6. In , the government created a separate francophone school division. Assiniboine Community College operates in and outside Brandon and is responsible for all community college agricultural training in the province. Keewatin College offers certificate courses of one year or less, and diploma courses, mostly in northern Manitoba.

Red River College, located in Winnipeg , provides courses including applied arts, business administration, health services, industrial arts and technology. In , St. Boniface French, Roman Catholic , St. Later, other colleges joined them, but in a realignment resulted in three distinct universities: the University of Manitoba , the University of Winnipeg and Brandon University. The University of Manitoba is one of the largest universities in Canada, with four affiliated colleges that provide instruction in French: St.

John's and St. Paul's Roman Catholic ; St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox ; and St. Boniface, which is the only college providing instruction entirely in French. Manitoba is also home to the Canadian Mennonite University, which opened its doors in following the amalgamation of several Mennonite colleges.

Winnipeg is located in the heart of Canada and has historically been a vital link in all forms of east—west transportation. The York Boats of the fur trade and the Red River carts of early settlers gave way first to steamboats on the Red River , then to the great railways of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Subsequently, Winnipeg provided facilities for servicing all land and air carriers connecting east and west. Today, rail and road join Winnipeg with the principal mining centres of northern Manitoba.

During the long, cold winter, a complex system of interconnected lakes creates a network of winter roads. Major northern centres are linked to the south via major highways. Since , bush flying has made remote communities accessible; several small carriers serve the majority of northern communities. In , the Stevenson Aerodrome opened an airfield in St. By , Stevenson Field was the fourth largest civil airport handling more military traffic than any other airport in Canada.

Upgrades were also made beginning in the s to transform the facility into a modern passenger-oriented terminal. As Canada's principal midcontinent rail centre, both the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway have extensive maintenance facilities and marshalling yards in and around Winnipeg. At Transcona, it maintains repair and servicing shops for rolling stock and locomotives, and Gimli has a national employee-training centre. In addition to repair shops and marshalling yards, the CPR has a large piggyback terminal.

Formerly an army base, Churchill is also a research centre and a supply base for eastern Arctic communities. The Manitoba Arts Council promotes the study, enjoyment, production and performance of works in the arts.

It assists organizations involved in cultural development; offers grants, scholarships and loans to Manitobans for study and research; and makes awards to individuals. In addition, essayist, historian and poet George Woodcock , and popular historian Barry Broadfoot are also from Manitoba. The Winnipeg Art Gallery , in addition to traditional and contemporary works, houses the largest collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world.

Built in and situated on the Red River 32 km northeast of Winnipeg , it is the oldest intact stone fort in Western Canada, preserving much of the atmosphere of the Red River Colony. The Forks, a waterfront redevelopment and national historic site, is the birthplace of Winnipeg.

Located at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, this site was an early Indigenous settlement and has been used as a trade and meeting place for over 6, years. Today, it is again a place where recreational, cultural, commercial and historical activities bring people together. Among a number of historic houses is Riel House, home of the Riel family. York Factory , located at the mouth of the Nelson River and dating from , was a transhipment point for furs.

Other points of historical significance are St. Heather Stefanson. Brown, Strangers in Blood ; K. Coates and F. Morton, Manitoba: A History 2nd ed, ; G.

Friesen, Prairie West ; X. Government of Manitoba The official website for the Government of Manitoba. Click on "About Manitoba" for information about Manitoba's geography, history, climate, and more. Search The Canadian Encyclopedia. Remember me. I forgot my password. Why sign up? Create Account. Suggest an Edit.