That is how Manitoba was originally described, a blockage in the way of the anticipated North West Passage. It was in this way that Manitoba was discovered in 1612 when Captain Button saw land on the horizon somewhere in the vicinity of present day Churchill.
By 1738 the great explorer La Verendrye - still commemorated in La Verendrye Park - had set up a fort at the junction of the Red River and the Assiniboine, the first European station in the confines of the later city of Winnipeg. La Verendrye had just laid out the water highways , but it was the early 1800's before the land fell to the plough at the instigation of Lord Selkirk.
A unique reminder of those days of the fur trade, the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, is Fort Garry on the banks of the Red River. In the summer it is a kind of living museum with folks in period dress talking as if it is still the 1800's. The fort took eight years to build with walls seven and a half feet high and three feet thick. Even though it ceased to be the governmental centre of the area, it remained the social centre of the Red River district for years. The province of Manitoba came into existence in 1870, and the remaining years of the century saw the Metis rebellion, and the capture and execution of the Metis Leader Louis Riel who had been elected President of the Provisional Government of the North West Territories. He is still remembered and commemorated by a statue outside the legislative building here. One of Winnipeg's best recognised landmarks, the legislative building itself with its distinctive statue of the Golden Boy on top only dates from 1920. However, socially important historical events occurred before that date.
Between 1900 and 1919 there was increasing labour unrest in the city. In 1906 there was a streetcar strike which ended in violence and reading of the riot act, backed up by a show of riflemen and machine guns. But it was on May 15th, 1919 that the relatively well known Winnipeg General Strike happened. Demanding higher wages, employer recognition, and better working conditions the workers of the city brought the place to a halt. This culmination of labour unrest and discontent that had made strikes commonplace by 1918, was aggravated by the visit of the Minister of Justice later in May. The police force were all fired for refusing to sign a pledge saying they would not strike, and 2000 special constables were signed up. When it finally became clear that the strikers would not just bow to the government 8 of the 10 strike leaders were arrested.
In June a "silent parade" of protesting war veterans apparently became "unruly" and was broken up by policemen with baseball bats and rifles. Two men died and an unknown number were injured, the strike was over by June 26th. In terms of it's immediate aims the strike was a failure, but the subsequent commission of inquiry concluded that the strike arose from discontent due to "genuine and legitimate grievances, long hours and low pay and bad housing". In the long run the strike has had a tremendous impact on the social and political history of Canada and established the power of labour as a force. Today the city is rightly or wrongly something of a byword for inactivity and isolation. Winnipeg is city of about 700 000 people with Polish, Chinese, Ukrainian, Latin-American, French, English and Vietnamese communities, a large university, an agriculturally based province around it, and a typical continental climate of hot summers and freezing winters. Life and commerce no longer revolves around the rivers. Always something of a backwater in North American mythology its attractions and interest remain dictated largely by the eye of the beholder. That is true of its history too, there is more there than strikes the causal inquirer.
- Dr. Euan Taylor, Winnipeg, Canada
