History

Our People

Between 7,700 and 11,000 years ago Aboriginal hunting families moved into the Southwest as the glacial Lake Agassiz drained.  Their economic strategies relied on movement between locations as they conducted a seasonal harvest of plant and animal foods.  Between the 10th and 17th centuries European settlement increased spectacularly as a result of new development in science, technology, law, government and communications. During this era French and English entrepreneurs explored the globes resources and North America became of particular interest.   The fur resources were what encouraged the entrepreneurs to stay.  Although the trade affected the Aboriginal people,  they continued with their lifestyle among the new settlers.  To build the fur trade companies established several hundred trade posts.  These posts brought about closer relationships of Aboriginals and Europeans.  Intergration of Aboriginal women and European men created the birth of children who were later called the Métis people.  The Métis people are a collective force in prairie history.  To find out more about the history and settlement of Manitoba you can visit a local library. This information was taken from The Encyclopaedia of Manitoba – Great Plains Publication, History by: Gerald Friesen.

There are many historical museums within the region. These provide information and education on people and places in different eras.

Immigration

• Canada, which is essentially a country of immigrants, has consistently required the importation of skilled and unskilled workers to assist its economic development. Prior to Confederation (1867) a vast number of immigrant workers, most of whom were from the British Isles, had already assumed an important role within the agricultural and economies of the British North American colonies.
• In the late 19th century Canada's future Prairie Provinces were opened to settlement.  The demand for farm goods coincided with the election of Wilfrid Laurier's government, which immediately encouraged the settlement of the West with large-scale immigration. Canada's new and aggressive minister of the interior, Clifford Sifton, organized and revamped a program that would admit agricultural settlers from places other than the British Isles, Northern Europe and the US.
• Sifton and his immigration authorities balanced their ethnic anxieties against a frantic search for settlers. They listed ideal settlers in a descending preference. British and American agriculturalists were followed by French, Belgians, Dutch, Scandinavians, Swiss, Finns, Russians, Austro-Hungarians, Germans, Ukrainians and Poles. Close to the bottom of the list came those who were, in both the public and the government's minds, less desirable.
• Ottawa, however, did not have the only voice when it came to immigration. The British North America Act gave the provinces a voice in immigration if they chose to run it.
• Once in Canada, many thousands of immigrants did find a place for themselves and their families, but Canadian immigration policy and administration, could not bend enough to admit other would-be immigrants. Head taxes, landing taxes, bilateral restriction agreements and travel restrictions virtually prohibited the immigration of Asians.
• As a result of the dramatic and devastating economic collapse caused by the Great Depression, the need for the government's selective encouragement of immigration faded.
• Immigrant labour was also extensively used during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway.
• The tendency to import labour became particularly pronounced after 1870, when Canada began actively participating in the transatlantic labour market. The rapid expansion of ocean and rail transportation made it possible for British and European workers to hunt for jobs in North America; according to one source, about 900 000 unskilled and skilled workers (other than agriculturalists) arrived between 1907 and 1930.
• Although Canada officially maintained that only agriculturalists were being imported, in practice thousands of the immigrants who came from central and southern Europe (1880-1930) became either full-time or part-time unskilled industrial workers because industrialists and farmers were able to link their economic interests in demanding an "open door" immigration policy.
• From 1945 onwards, the advent of postwar prosperity and an improved attitude towards human rights, the status of non-British immigrant workers substantially changed. Three new waves of immigrant workers entered Canada: European displaced persons, many of whom were highly educated and soon left the unskilled labour market for professional and skilled jobs; immigrants from "preferred countries" (Britain, Germany, Netherlands, etc), who generally gravitated into prestigious jobs upon arrival in this country; immigrants from Asia, many of whom were entrepreneurial or business immigrants; and immigrant workers from the low-wage countries of southern Europe, Southeast Asia and, increasingly, the West Indies. 
• While Canada in the past has often been a reluctant host wary of those who did not meet its racial and class standards, there is little evidence that the country will return to the exclusionist policies of the past.
• There has been a colourful history of immigration to Manitoba and to the Southwest Region.  As we have welcomed immigrants from all over the world we have become a prosperous and diverse place to live and work.

The previous information was collected from The Canadian Encyclopaedia.  If you would like a more detailed history please visit their website or visit a local library.