Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Winnipeg

The nucleus of the future city of Winnipeg was related to the construction of a general store by Henry McKenney in 1862. McKenney built his store where the fur-runners' trail coming down the Assiniboine River to Fort Garry crossed the trail running down the Red River — in present-day Winnipeg, the corner of Portage and Main. Until 1873, when Winnipeg was incorporated as a city, the settlement remained a relatively unimportant part of the larger Red River Colony. When the first city council meeting was held in 1874, the city had a population of 3,700 and was little more than a collection of shacks.

Winnipeg's strategic geographical location made it the natural focus for the western extension of the transcontinental railways. The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885 brought the city a period of growth and prosperity unequalled in Canadian urban development. A flood of immigrants, high wheat prices, plentiful capital and improved dryland farming all contributed to sustained growth. The city became the wholesale, administrative and financial centre of the West. By 1911, Winnipeg ranked fourth in Canada in manufacturing.

This meteoric rise peaked by 1914, when the city entered a recession. Winnipeg’s economy came to a standstill during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, which left a legacy of bitterness and division. The Great Depression plunged business, manufacturing, wholesale trade and the mail-order business into sharp decline. Factories closed and unemployment soared. The city was not lifted out of depression until the beginning of the Second World War. After the war conditions greatly improved, but growth was slow and steady compared to the frenzied pace of the early 20th century.

During this time, the development of oil, natural gas, coal and potash shifted economic power westward. Winnipeg's previous monopoly on the marketing of agricultural products and distribution of goods was challenged by other Prairie cities. However, the city's traditional resources have sustained its commerce and its position as one of the largest cities on the Prairies. Today Winnipeg has a diversified economy, including finance and insurance, manufacturing, aerospace, transportation, information technology, agri-business, and furniture and apparel industries.



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