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Happy 150th Manitoba!
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On the move with GoManitoba
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Manitoba marks a milestone – 150 years since entering confederation! Dorothy Dobbie “I know that through the grace of God I am the founder of Manitoba.” – Louis Riel, July, 1885, 15 years after Manitoba entered Confederation.
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he year 2020 marks a big milestone in Manitoba’s history. It will be 150 years since Manitoba became the fifth province of Canada. Most Manitobans do not know their history and while there is not enough room here to tell it well, the Coles notes version follows. How can we properly celebrate what we don’t know or understand? Today, it is widely acknowledged that without Louis Riel and his determination to protect the Metis way of life, Manitoba’s entry into Canada would have lagged for many years. Until 1868, the Hudson Bay Company owned the territory known as Rupert’s Land which had been granted by King Charles II, in 1670 to his cousin Prince Rupert of Rhine. This vast area included all of
Portage and Main in Winnipeg 1872 showing settlers leaving for western Manitoba. Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, southern Nunavut, and northern parts of Ontario and Quebec. The charter included parts of Minnesota, North Dakota and bits of Montana and South Dakota although the Hudson Bay Company’s accepted territory at time ended at the 49th parallel. In 1867, the same year as Canadian Confederation,
Five wishes for rebranding Manitoba in this 150th year of Confederation Dorothy Dobbie
1. Change our story. It is time for Manitobans to drop the negatives. Forget the cold, mosquito infested, pothole ridden, down trodden wilderness. Start talking about the sunny days, the lazy summers, the boundless lakes, the green elm canopy, the prosperous little towns that hide explosive and understated world class industries: Crown Royal (Gimli); HiLife (LaBroquerie); Bothwell Cheese (New Bothwell); Friesen Press (Altona); Polar Bears (Churchill); Portage Mutual Insurance (Portage La Prairie); fire-
trucks (Wawanesa); buses and farm equipment (Winnipeg); to name just a handful . . . 2. Tell our story. Do a complete revamp of every scrap of paper, every brochure, every publication, every video that we currently use to promote Manitoba. Have this material re-written by story tellers, magazine publishers, book writers instead of public relations gurus. Stop trying to be Newfoundland and find our own voice in video, television, radio and on the Internet and social media. This is not a job for an advertising agency. Express it using the talents and ingeu 5 ‘Rebranding Manitoba'
the United State purchased Alaska from Russia. This prompted the Prime Minister of the new Dominion of Canada, John A. Macdonald, to enlist the help of Britain in purchasing the territory for Canada. Macdonald was worried that the US would attempt to fulfil its vision of “manifest destiny” and take over the vast northwest. By the time of the sale of Rupert’s Land to Canada, the Red River Valley had long been the home of the Metis people, the descendants of intermarriage between voyageurs and local Indigenous people who had occupied the area for a couple of hundred years. They hunted buffalo, traded furs and many worked for the North West Company, headquartered in Montreal and competing with the Hudson Bay over the fur trade. In 1812, the first group of Lord Selkirk’s settlers came to the territory and settled at and near Winnipeg. They would have all died the very first year without the help of Chief Peguis, a Saultaux leader, who rescued them from starvation and cold. Neither the Metis nor the Northwest Company were happy to see the lands settled, disrupting hunting and trading, but the settlers u 5 ‘Manitoba marks a milestone'
Encounters with a snow leopard Dr. Robert E. Wrigley The following is an excerpt from Robert Wrigley’s upcoming book, Chasing Nature: An Ecologist’s Lifetime of Adventures and Observations. This excerpt was carried recently in his high school newsletter.
Robert and Dmitri enjoying each other’s company. (Photo by Darlene Stack).
My favourite animal One question I was asked repeatedly while giving curator talks or leading tours at the Assiniboine Park Zoo was, “What is your favourite animal?” Without a doubt, my choice was the snow leopard, and in particular, our magnificent male, Dmitri. He was an exceptional animal both physi-
cally and in his aristocratic mannerisms. Built for power, leaping and speed, he moved with the grace of a fast-flowing stream, never suffering an awkward step or momentary loss of balance. His regal persona stopped visitors in their tracks, and the intensity of his glare was arresting, capable u 15 ‘Snow leopard'
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