Winnipeg

Winnipeg's geographic isolation and traditionally long, cold winters have fostered an independent spirit among its people. Although its status as a transportation hub and commercial gateway to the West has diminished, the provincial capital of Manitoba has a cultural scene—including a symphony orchestra, a ballet company, two major theaters, and a strong arts community—that is the envy of much larger Canadian cities.

Historically, Winnipeg was the funnel for the first great waves of immigration to the West, and ethnic pride remains strong here. British and French by colonization, with subsequent arrivals of Ukrainians, Italians, members of the Jewish and Mennonite faiths, and many other groups, the city has seen since the 1980s the growing pride of the First Nations and Métis people and the members of newer communities, notably from Portugal, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Population growth is steady, reaching 706,700 in 2007. After years of modest growth since the late 1980s, Winnipeg has rallied since 2003, especially with new business and entertainment developments reviving downtown.

With most of its business activity concentrated in a compact downtown zone, Winnipeg retains much of its historic charm, evidenced in the many edifices from the turn of the 20th century. Because major residential and retail development has been left generally to its fringes, the city still holds many enclaves of older homes on shady lanes, such as the grand, gated residences along Wellington Crescent, often set in surprising contrast to newer structures.

Originally, buffalo-hunting Plains Indians inhabited the area, which was franchised by the British Crown to the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1738 Pierre Gaultier de Varennes established a North West Company fur-trading post at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. Lord Selkirk, a Scot, brought a permanent agricultural settlement in 1812; Winnipeg was incorporated as a city in 1873; and soon after, in 1886, the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived, bringing a rush of European immigrants. The "Chicago of the North" boomed as a railroad hub, a center of the livestock and grain industries, and a principal market city of western Canada.

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