Winnipeg, Manitoba
Bear and I have a travel credit that is about to expire. We only have two weeks to spend our WestJet bucks, so the pressure is on. Where to go?
Where would you go?
We won’t travel to the US again until our friends down south return to their senses, and the credit isn’t enough to take us off the continent, so our options are limited to domestic destinations. We recently visited family and friends on the west coast, and we are saving central and eastern Canada for an extended excursion. Alberta and Saskatchewan are accessible by land transportation, so that leaves…
…Manitoba.
Which reminds me of the best television commercial to ever hit the airwaves….
Click on the photo for a rewind…
Like most travellers, Winnipeg is probably not your first choice, but please ride along with us as Bear and I explore…
…Canada’s Middle Child.
Manitoba has a reputation of being a destination of last resort. The phrase, “Going to Winnipeg” has become a cultural phenomenon, used by reluctant travellers going to any destination they deem inferior.
Only a city in a province with low self-esteem could come up with this slogan:
B,B,B,Baby, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
It wasn’t always this way. I would have walked miles, over broken glass to get to Winnipeg when these guys ruled the music world.
What’s your excuse?
In a 2005 Simpsons episode, Homer and a few friends travel to Winnipeg to purchase cheap pharmaceuticals and smuggle them into the United States. Simpsons’ animators accurately portrayed Winnipeg’s skyline, and they may have captured the essence of Winnipeg on the welcome sign…
Winnipeg, we were born here, …
… what’s your excuse?
A Traitor, or a Hero?
Manitobans have always been defiant; the province was born of rebellion.
In 1870, Louis Riel led a resistance movement to challenge encroaching Canadian government influence on the Métis people. Riel’s Red River Rebellion succeeded in establishing Manitoba as a self-governing province within the Canadian Confederation.
Fifteen years later, Riel was called upon to lead another rebellion, this time in the District of Saskatchewan. The North West Rebellion turned violent and was ultimately quelled by force.
Louis Riel was tried for treason, found guilty and hanged in Regina in 1885. His body is interred at St Boniface Cathedral.
Debate still rages on the question of whether Riel was…
…a traitor, or a hero.
Forty-two species of Mosquitoes…
While researching Winnipeg, I kept running into descriptives like, Hottest, Coldest, Windiest, Muggiest, and Forty-two Species of Mosquitoes….
A friend and former Manitoban, Doug, recommended that we take “lots of insect repellent” with us if we were serious about travelling to Winnipeg. He seemed to infer that Manitoba mosquitoes are the size of Bald Eagles. Another friend, Wayne asked, “did you lose a bet?”, when I told him where we were going.
I am happy to report that they were both wrong, the temperature was near perfect in Winnipeg, and we never saw a single mosquito. But we did encounter choking forest fire smoke the entire time we were there.
Even on days when there isn’t an intense heat wave, a blizzard, or a flock of angry mosquitoes, Winnipeg stands its ground as Canada’s most unliveable city.
Finding the Good
Going to Winnipeg wasn’t an entirely random idea. We were on a mission to visit a former reform school and view some archival family records.
Marymound, formerly St. Agnes Priory, where Kirsten Brunelle, Admin Assistant and Sonya Warga, Clinical Director, found clues to our family heritage while they carried out the youth and family services organization’s mission of…
… Finding the Good.
Sticks, without dogs…
… sometimes, you just don’t ask.
(For the record, Bear did not approve of me inserting these photos, or their “nonsensical” message….)
Golden Boy
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Winnipeggers are very proud of Golden Boy, who stands naked on top of the Manitoba legislative building. The gilded statue has dominated Winnipeg’s skyline since 1919.
Golden Boy running through a celestial wheat field, with a torch in one hand and a sheaf of grain in the other.
“Fashioned after Mercury, the Roman god of trade, commerce and profit, Golden Boy is a “call to youth for a more prosperous future”.
“Golden Boy faces north, toward Manitoba’s natural resources and economic opportunity”.
– Manitoba Tourism
Not-So-Golden Boys
Not all of Winnipeg’s citizens share the optimistic notion Golden Boy symbolizes. His northerly trajectory overlooks “the howling chaos of Winnipeg’s North End, where prostitution, drinking, drug use and violence on the streets are the norm.[1]”.
From his lofty perch on the Parliament Building, Golden Boy can see beyond the wheat fields to Stony Mountain Penitentiary, home of so many of Winnipeg’s…
… Not-So-Golden Boys.
[1] Friesen, Joe (2016). The Ballad of Danny Wolfe Life of a Modern Outlaw.
Not-So-Golden Boys in Winnipeg’s North end …
… and Stoney Mountain Penitentiary.
More Mosquitoes
Winnipeg has a unique personality, one that can only be understood by spending time here. Two days was not enough to fully appreciate Canada’s Middle Child, so we will come back.
Maybe next time there will be less smoke and …
…More Mosquitoes.
Now defunct Nutty Club Candy factory, source of much of Western Canadian childhood’s dental decay.
The real Winni(peg)-the-Pooh in Assiniboine Park.
Louis Real, with the Manitoba Legislature under his elbow.
Worm’s-eye view of Winnipeggers at Union Station
Like and Subscribe…
To join the WellWaterBlog audience, scroll down and add your e-mail address to the growing list. You will receive a notice each time a new article is posted and nothing else – No Advertising, No Solicitations, No B.S., Just Fun.
Judy
I am not a shopper so we don’t go to “the city” very often. I have been known to make trips to Assiniboine Park Zoo (one of my favorite places), Rainbow Stage (in Kildonan Park – a couple of shows each summer), The Centennial Concert Hall (all kinds of various shows and concerts), Canada Life Centre, The Forks and The Human Rights Museum. Folk Fest was just on this week as well which my youngest and his gf took in on Saturday. Not sure what all you took in on your visit, but with the right planning you might enjoy yourselves next visit!
Russ Paton
Don’t get me wrong, we had a good time, just too much smoke to stay out long. Great restaurants!
Karen Richmond
I’d forgotten about the Simpson episode with the drug smuggling. Could that possibly be where Rump got the idea that Canada is a haven for delivering drugs to the US? 😉😉