Profile: Manitoba
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Manitoba, Canada. Photo courtesy of MapGrid - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, WikiMedia Commons
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NAME
Like much of Canadian nomenclature, Manitoba’s moniker derives from both a geographical landmark and an Indigenous language. Originating from the Cree phrase, Latinized to “man-into-wahpaow,” meaning “the narrows of the Great Spirit,” a reference to Lake Manitoba and its topographical tapering at its centre, Manitoba was adopted as the official name of this Canadian province. This was done in part to pay tribute to the original peoples of the land, as suggested by famed Métis leader Louis Riel.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
If you have been a regular reader of our “Canadian Profiles” series, then you would know that each Canadian province has a slogan, which is prominently featured on the back, and sometimes front, of each vehicle on its license plate. Manitoba is no different. Though its slogan is much simpler than most: “Friendly Manitoba.” Normally, a background description of the official saying of a province would be provided here, but this one is rather self-explanatory, so one will refrain from over-explanation.
Moving on… Manitoba, which is in the dead centre of the country, is one of four provinces that are located in the region of Western Canada. As such, it is equally a constituent of the Ukrainian Belt as are its neighbours, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and western Ontario (see blog post, “Profile: Saskatchewan, Demographics”). Bordering Manitoba are three Canadian regions (Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nunavut) and two American states (North Dakota, Minnesota). Sandwiched by this delineation, Manitoba is a province with centuries of colonial history predated by millennia of Indigenous and natural history. In modern times, Manitoba possesses the fifth largest provincial population in Canada, approximating 1,342,153 (as of 2021) residents living on a land measured at 649,950 km2 (nearly twice the size of Germany).
Flag of Manitoba, Canada. Photo courtesy of Kooma (original) Echando una mano (current) - Sodipodi's Clipart Gallery (through Wayback Machine), Public Domain, WikiMedia Commons
NATURE
With such an immense land mass, it is only expected that Manitoba host a varied landscape. Much like its prairie counterparts, Alberta and Saskatchewan, Manitoba features vast grasslands in its central and southern regions, complemented by areas of thick boreal forest. In Manitoba’s north, arctic tundra paints the land, extending to a saltwater coastline in the northeast that belongs to the Hudson Bay, a large body of water that is fed by the currents of both the Arctic and the North Atlantic oceans. Sprinkled across these landscapes are a bevy of freshwater lakes linked together by a copious river system, which covers a total area equal to one sixth of the entire province.
PLANTS
With varied landscapes comes varied vegetation. While many Canadians like to joke around that Manitoba is the coldest place in the country, it, like other Canadian regions, experiences four seasons, and so grows a myriad of flowers, plants, and trees in the province, including: prairie crocuses, sunflowers, wild licorice, stinging nettle, foxtails, big bluestem grass, sweetgrass, honeysuckles, wild raspberry and blackberry bushes, and trees like white spruce, elm, maple, aspen, poplar, birch, and pine, among much else.
WILDLIFE
Due to Manitoba’s varied nature, countless animal species inhabit the province: ravens, pelicans, grouse, turkeys, owls, Canada geese, bison, caribou, deer, cougars, wolves, coyotes, wolverines, foxes, porcupines, badgers, prairie dogs, turtles, otters, beavers, seals, and the most famously known animals of the area, snakes, polar bears, and beluga whales.
Canada is considered the polar bear capital of the world, as it is the natural habitat of two thirds of the earth’s polar bear population. Manitoba, particularly in its arctic region around the Hudson Bay coast, has such a high concentration of polar bears that it is commonly known that Manitoba residents, primarily those living in the town of Churchill, traditionally keep their car doors unlocked in order to allow strangers the safety of their vehicles in case a polar bear comes by.
Regarding Manitoba’s reputation for snakes, not only does it have a variety of snake species spread across its land, but it is also home to the largest naturally-occurring snake orgy in the world (see “Tourism” section below).
CLIMATE
Despite being the sunniest province in Canada per year, Manitoba experiences a vast range of climate, with influences coming from both northern and southern air masses originating in the arctic and the Gulf of Mexico. The reason for this climatic combination is found in the region’s environmental makeup, where its topographical height is limited, its geographical positioning is central to the continent, and it is generally far removed from large bodies of water save the Hudson Bay. Due to this unique composition, Manitoba is divided into three distinct zones: subarctic climate (northern Manitoba), humid continental climate (southern Manitoba) and semi-arid interior climate (southwestern Manitoba). Said climates together serve as an extreme weather experience, annually providing Manitobans temperatures ranging anywhere from frigid negatives like -40 C to scorching positives up to +53 C.
NATURAL DISASTERS
As consequence to such a radical environment, the province sees many natural phenomena per year, including droughts, wildfires, tornadoes, thunderstorms, floods, blizzards, whiteouts, and more.
CITY LIVING
Canadians are known to be a hardy people, so such possibilities of disaster do not deter them from setting up camp and settling down permanently in the area. Just look at Manitoba’s capital city, Winnipeg, as an example.
Boasting a metropolitan population of approximately 834,678 (as of 2021), Winnipeg, informally known as “Winterpeg” among Canadians for its extreme winter temperatures, or the more formal “Cultural Capital of Canada” due to its significant role in Canadian history–both pre-colonially and colonially–has been a primary hub for business for hundreds of years.
Before the arrival of European settlers, Indigenous peoples such as the Anishnaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dene, and Dakota used the Winnipeg region as a primary point of trade. Following suit in the early-mid 18th century, French settlers founded their own trade fort in the area, only to be imitated by other Europeans, such as the Selkirk settlers, over the next 70 odd years.
In modern times, Winnipeg has been established as a locale for many government institutions, such as the University of Manitoba, Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corporation, and the Royal Canadian Mint (a high-tech facility responsible for the design, fabrication and provision of more than 80 countries’ currencies, both past and present (including those of Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Taiwan)).
Outside of business and government, residents and tourists alike take pleasure in Winnipeg’s other varied offerings: an active art scene (namely in literature, sculpture, theatre, opera, and ballet), numerous shopping amenities, the Exchange District (one of 26 National Historic Sites of Canada located in Winnipeg), the Winnipeg Walkway (a network of tunnels and skyways that connect much of the downtown area), the Forks Market (an industrial indoor market featuring local multicultural goods), Central Park (an urban area of nature and year-round entertainment: toboggan space, wading pool, tennis courts, summer markets, musical concerts, events for annual observances such as World Refugee Day and HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, etc.), Assiniboine Park (the city’s largest park), Assiniboine Park Zoo, and much more.
Other notable Manitoban towns and cities, apart from Winnipeg, include: Brandon (the second largest city of the province, next to Winnipeg), Flin Flon (known for its industrial endeavours in mining, smelting, and railway, among others), Churchill (known for its culture around polar bears), and Gimli (formerly known as New Iceland), and more.
TOURISM
While Manitoba may be another prairie sibling of Canada, it does stand firm on its own two feet as a unique contributor to the country’s tourism industry. With both natural phenomena and rich patrimony, Manitoba offers much to explore: the Snakes of Narcisse, a three-kilometre trail through the natural habitat of the red-sided garter snake, is where tourists from around the globe gather to observe the world’s largest snake orgies, which numbers serpents in the thousands; Oak Hammock Marsh, a wetland in high concentration of over 300 bird species, is an attraction perfect for the avid bird watcher; Churchill, a northern town located on the Hudson Bay coast, this community offers helicopter and bus tours of the local arctic landscape and wild polar bear habitats that spread across the region; Grand Beach, a soft-sand beach that blankets the shore of Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba’s most prominent lake; the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba, otherwise known by locals as Islendingadagurinn, is an annual celebration of the town Gimli’s Icelandic roots (see “Demographics” section below); Festival du Voyageur, a winter festival in St. Boniface, Winnipeg, that honours the province’s centuries-old Francophone culture and history with traditional food, music, games, and various competitions; and the Canadian Museum For Human Rights, the first institution of its kind, is a museum devoted to the global exploration of historical, present and future social movements as defined by humanity’s distinct cultures, through a diverse selection of exhibitions and events.
The Snakes of Narcisse
ECONOMY
Clearly, with Manitoba’s diversity of tourist attractions, tourism would play a major part in the province’s economy. However, there are other industries that offer great benefit to Manitoba’s infrastructure, as well: agriculture is the province’s most profitable source, particularly in the context of cattle husbandry, the production of sunflower seed, dry beans, potatoes, and oats (one of the world’s largest oat mills headquarters in Manitoba); electricity, oil, mining, and forestry are other primary economy boosters; but what makes Manitoba’s economy distinct from other prairie regions is its high concentration of government-funded institutions (see City Living section above).
DEMOGRAPHICS
It is these various government-funded institutions, including the diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds of the Manitoba residents working in the aforementioned industries, that have influenced the nine official languages of the province (as of 2010): English (primary tongue), French (additional tongue)–approximately 8.3% of the population is bilingual in both languages–Cree, Dakota, Dene, Inuktitut, Michif, Ojibway, and Oji-Cree.
Among these languages exist a multiplicity of other tongues spoken on the daily by both locals and immigrants: Tagalog, Punjabi, German, Hindi, Spanish, Mandarin, and Plautdietsch being the most populous in terms of speakers in the province, respectively.
These speakers co-inhabit the land with significant populations having origins from First Nations and Métis communities, Franco-Manitoban communities, Mennonite communities, as well as families from England, Scotland, Germany, Ukraine, Ireland, France, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, the Netherlands, India, and Iceland (interestingly, Manitoba is called home to the largest Icelandic diaspora in the world outside of Iceland).
EDUCATION
Like other Canadian regions, the majority of students attend the public school system, which, in general, is divided into an English- and French-spoken curriculum that is further divided into secular and religious sects. Approximately 81.1% of adult Manitobans have received a high school-level education and 50.2% of the population have received a post-secondary education (i.e., professional certification, college, university, etc.) (as of 2021).
Well known institutions of higher education in the province include the University of Manitoba (which is the largest and most comprehensive university of the province), Université de Saint-Boniface (a Roman Catholic institution that serves as the only French immersion university of Manitoba, as well as the oldest post-secondary institution in Western Canada), the University of Winnipeg (a university that primarily focuses on the arts), the Canadian Mennonite University (a private school known for its religious focus in education), and Brandon University (known for its arts and sciences programs). Interestingly, the latter is the only university that is not located in the capital city of Manitoba, Winnipeg.
FOOD
As a mosaic society, food from around the globe can be found and eaten across Canada. It does not matter what a person’s heritage or cultural background is, it is common for the majority of Canadian residents to partake in the consumption of a myriad of cuisines every day. This is so common, in fact, that most Canadians do not even recognize that they do it.
Despite the rich array of dishes that Manitobans, therefore, mange on, there are, indeed, particular foods that are more commonly consumed in Manitoba than other Canadian regions. This is either due to them being invented in the province or coming from the diverse cultures living within the province. Here are but a select few:
Bear
a healthy alternative to beef, this gamy meat is often used in the preparation of stews, steaks, and roasts
Prairie oysters
usually served in bars and restaurants with a spritz of lemon juice and/or a dipping sauce or demi-glace, this protein-rich hors d’oeuvres consists of deep-fried bull testicles
Pickerel
this freshwater fish caught in the province’s numerous lakes is a common seafood that can be found prepared in a variety of ways: fried, deep-fried, grilled, baked, dehydrated, and even pickled
Manoomin
a word borrowed by English from the Ojibwe language of Anishnaabemowin, this wild rice is the only cereal native to Canada
this food has served as a cultural, spiritual, medicinal, and culinary staple of the region for millennia; nowadays, it is usually paired with pickerel, bear, bison, moose, and other meats and alternatives in soups, as pilafs, or as crusts
Honey Dill Sauce
invented in the city of Winnipeg by accident, this dipping sauce consists of only three ingredients: mayonnaise, honey, and dried dill
this is typically used as a condiment for bar food like fries, chicken tenders, dry ribs, etc.
Schmoo Torte
native to Manitoba, this Russian/Jewish/Canadian hybrid of a dessert features a pecan-filled sponge cake or angel food cake topped with whipped cream and a sweet caramel sauce
Vínarterta
originating in Iceland, this centuries-old dessert is, for many, an ever-present Christmas dainty in Manitoba, despite its popularity having waned in Iceland for quite some time now
this is a multi-layered vanilla cookie-dough-like cake pasted together with a prune compote/jam that is spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves; some varieties include the use of other fruits, such as strawberries, blueberries, apricot, and even rhubarb, with the sometimes-added flavour of maple syrup
Have you ever been to Manitoba? If not, would you ever go to this province? What would you be excited to check out? Practice your English by letting me know in the comments below.
RELATED ARTICLES
Profile: Ontario (coming soon)
Profile: Quebec (coming soon)
SOURCES
ATTRIBUTION
“Brown Bear” photo courtesy of Jean-noël Lafargue - own photo, w:fr:Parc animalier des Pyrénées, France, FAL, Wikimedia Commons
“Prairie Oysters” photo courtesy of Vincent Diamante from Los Angeles, CA, USA - Rocky Mountain Oysters! Mmmmmm!, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Manoomin” photo courtesy of No machine-readable author provided. ElinorD assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Schmoo Torte” photo courtesy of Beyond Flour Blog
“Vínarterta” photo courtesy of Navaro - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Fried Pickerel” photo courtesy of Gilbertfilion - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Wolverine” photo courtesy of User:MatthiasKabel - Own work, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
“Polar Bear” photo courtesy of Alan Wilson - This file has been extracted from another file, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Porcupines” photo courtesy of Mattnad - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Western Terrestrial Garter Snake” photo courtesy of Zooplan - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Raven” photo courtesy of Copetersen www.copetersen.com - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Beluga Whale” photo courtesy of premier.gov.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Ruffed Grouse” photo courtesy of USFWSmidwest - Ruffed Grouse, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
“White-Tailed Deer” photo courtesy of USDA photo by Scott Bauer - Image Number: K5437-3. US Department of Agriculture, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
“Grand Beach” photo courtesy of By Ethan Sahagun - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Norse Battle Reenactment” photo courtesy of Travel Manitoba - Gimli Icelandic Festival, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Ice Sculpture Competition, Festival du Voyageur” photo courtesy of Ccyyrree - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Nelson River” photo courtesy of US Mission Canada - Nelson River near Norway House, from the air, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Tornado Elie (2007)” photo courtesy of Justin1569 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Dry earth due to drought” photo courtesy of Maddy Weiss on Unsplash
“Farm Near Rosenort, MB (2022)” photo courtesy of @harleysiemens on X
“Human Rights Museum” photo courtesy of Krazytea - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Esplanade Riel Footbridge” photo courtesy of David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada - Esplanade Riel Footbridge, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
“St. Boniface Cathedral” photo courtesy of Jessica Losorata - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Docks At the Forks” photo courtesy of Northwest at en.wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
“Downtown Winnipeg” photo courtesy of Bob Linsdell, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Prairie Crocus” photo courtesy of Mary Krieger, some rights reserved (CC BY) - inaturalist.org
“Poplar Tree” photo courtesy of Wikipedia
“Honeysuckles” photo courtesy of Aftabbanoori - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Raspberries” photo courtesy of Kollányi Gábor, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Foxtails” photo courtesy of No machine-readable author provided. Curtis Clark assumed (based on copyright claims), CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
“Big Bluestem Grass” photo courtesy of Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA - Andropogon gerardii, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Riding Mountain National Park” photo courtesy of Jamie B. from USA - riding mountain national park 3 - reflection, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
“Boat Cove, Wasagaming” photo courtesy of JPark99 (talk) - Own work by the original uploader, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
“Grasslands” photo courtesy of Manitoba Forage Grassland Association
“Arctic Waters of Hudson Bay” photo courtesy of Brocken Inaglory - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
