Blake’s Winnipeg Birthday

Smack dab in the longitudinal centre of Canada, where the land is as flat as a pancake, and two rivers – the Red & the Assiniboine – converge, sits Winnipeg. The butt of many jokes about winter and mosquitoes and flooding and potholes, it is a city that few would go out of their way to visit. But not us! Unendingly curious, we love to explore new places so when my Saskatchewan family book a trip to Winnipeg to celebrate our youngest member’s ninth birthday, we eagerly sign on.

Gentle reader, what can I say about a place that is hot as Hades in summer, cold as the Arctic in winter, and was once Canada’s murder capital? It’s charms are not immediately evident!? But after a few days here and time spent in the various neighbourhoods, at a baseball game, the Forks, and the zoo we can better appreciate the appeal of this city of 800,000 people.

The Gateway to the West, Winnipeg boomed when the railway was routed through the city and prairie grain could be transported to the east via rail. When the Panama Canal opened and ships, rather than trains, became more economical the bubble burst and growth stalled. Nevertheless, Winnipeg remains an important hub for transportation as well as education, health care, culture, sport & entertainment.

We take a trolley tour for a two hour overview of the important sights & history and learn that Winnipeg has the oldest ballet company in Canada, the largest number of turn-of-the-century buildings in North America, the only Metis premier, the largest urban elm forest, was the site of the first Pan Am games in 1967 and has the largest French speaking city – St. Boniface – outside of Quebec, where the oldest hospital in Western Canada is still in operation and undergoing a major expansion. As well, the Canadian Mint and the Museum of Human Rights are located here in Winnipeg. Pretty impressive resume!

A few words about Manitoba Metis. Offspring of Scots men and indigenous women, this group has been marginalized as much as, if not more than, the native Cree, Ojibway, Dene, and Dakota. Remarkably the current premier of the province, Wab Kinew, is part Metis. Also remarkably, he is not the first; that honour goes to John Norquay. He was the fifth premier and served from 1878 to 1887. Norquay came from an Anglo-Métis ethnic background, making him a “half-breed”, which, at the time, was not considered an offensive term.

Louis Riel, Manitoba’s most famous Metis, their leader, and founder of the province of Manitoba, is buried in St. Boniface, in front of the cathedral. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first prime minister John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to defend Métis rights and identity as the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence. Hanged as a traitor, he is now venerated as the “Father of Manitoba”.

Today Metis and Indigenous make up almost 25% of the population. French and Filipino make up about 10% each. Not surprisingly northern Europeans account for more than half, of which 15% are Ukrainian (15% of the entire population, not just of the European population. There are many ethnic Ukrainians in Manitoba to this day.).

This unique ethnic mosaic is not without tension and conflict.  And driving around the various neighbourhoods it becomes obvious that the descendants of European immigrants are economically better off than those of indigenous, Asian and African immigrants. Tuxedo, an area of outsized lots, green lawns, large houses and high-end shops, contrasts sharply with the West End and North Main, areas that make it on the news for their crime and violence.

Craig & I take a walk along notorious North Main street in search of an elusive Ukrainian museum. It’s cleverly hidden in an onion-topped church adjacent to a strip mall. We have to ring a bell for the door to be unlocked by the museum attendant. Several other establishments on the street are similarly protected from random and unwanted visitors.

The museum is as underwhelming as the Main street sights are alarming and depressing. Shuttered businesses, dive-bars, litter, down-and-out people, fire trucks, police, and ambulances on several corners, sirens every 10 minutes, aid workers handing out water & sandwiches. Not nearly as bad as Vancouver’s East Hastings, but every bit as tragic.

Blake, the nine year old birthday boy, is a huge baseball fan and so we find ourselves at a Winnipeg Goldeye’s Tuesday evening game. The ballpark sits in front of the Museum of Human Rights, a gorgeous backdrop. Three national anthems are sung  – American, Canadian & Ukrainian – by a Ukrainian men’s choir, a blend of voices so well harmonized I wish they’d keep singing, even if it means listening to more national anthems.The between innings entertainment features more Ukrainia, in the form of young dancers. And a couple of lively mascots fill in whatever gaps in entertaining us remain. One of the Goldeye’s players gives Blake a fist-bump through the fence every time he comes up to bat.

It’s easy to sit back and relax. As the sun sets the light gets golden and casts a soft glow on it all. There’s a smell on the prairies at this time of day that is unique to that part of the world. And even though we are in the middle of a big city, Canada’s 8th largest, but maybe because we are by the rivers, there’s that indescribable prairie evening smell .

The game itself is a slugfest with plenty of hits and the crowd is vocal and loud. No matter, the Goldeyes lose to the Kansas City Monarchs by a run. As Craig & I walk back to the Delta Hotel at 10 PM it is still light out, still hot and humid. Still smelling like a place our younger selves knew well.

The Assiniboine Park Conservancy, aka the Winnipeg Zoo, is touted as a world-class zoo that focuses on animal welfare and conservation. The 80 acres of habitat provide more than enough space for the 150 resident species. It’s over a hundred years old and is one of only five zoos in Canada that meets the rigorous accreditation standards of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums. So why, we wonder, is the polar bear so obviously out of his element? Thankfully the other animals appear to be more appropriately lodged. Even so, to zoo or not to zoo? A tough philosophical question.

In need of lunch we head to the Forks, located at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, just east of downtown. It’s been a meeting place for over 6,000 years, long before it was called the Forks and turned into a tourist attraction. Indigenous peoples traded here, followed by European fur traders, Scottish settlers, railway pioneers and eventually the tens of thousands of immigrants who passed through this important transportation hub of yesteryear. Today it is a mix of restaurants, shops and entertainment facilities. After a Spaghetti Factory lunch (we’re touring with a 9 yr old!) we get on a motorboat for a spin by the riverside attractions. We get good views of a couple of landmarks and learn a bit more about early 20th century Winnipeg, but mostly I enjoy the cool river breeze.

The thermometer reads 30 degrees, which in the Okanagan is downright chilly for summer, but the Manitoba humidity ramps that number up significantly, all the way to sweltering. Dips in our hotel’s pool help but we are still left wondering how we survived our childhood summers in Saskatchewan without air conditioning? Well, obviously we survived, maybe partly because we didn’t even know what air conditioning was. Have we really become that entitled? But, the Delta Hotel rooftop pool is such refreshing relief from the heat. And have I mentioned the humidity?

Seeing as we are here for a week and are in possession of a rental car we take a day trip north along the Red River and then the southwestern shore of Lake Winnipeg, heading toward the town of Gimli. It’s a pretty drive through farmland with a few beach stops along the way.

It’s a stop at Lower Fort Garry that is an unexpected treat. Just north of Winnipeg, on the banks of the Red River, this bastion of history is a National Historic Site. From hosting the signing of the first of several treaties to serving as a Hudson’s Bay Company stronghold, the fort was an important  supply depot for the Red River settlement. The numerous limestone buildings have been refurbished with 19th century artifacts that reflect what the fort would have looked like in its heyday. Costumed staff add to the feeling of authenticity of this “living museum”.

We learn that the fur trade, and especially the Hudson’s Bay Company, changed everything for Manitoba. A vast commercial enterprise across the wild, forested expanse of what is now Canada, the fur trade was at its peak for nearly 250 years, from the early 17th to the mid-19th centuries. It was sustained primarily by the trapping of beavers to satisfy the European demand for felt hats. The intensely competitive trade opened the American continent to exploration and settlement. It financed missionary work, established social, economic and colonial relationships between Europeans and Indigenous people, and played a formative role in the creation and development of Manitoba.

We drive on to Gimli where an Icelandic festival is underway, arriving in time to see a Viking battle reenactment. It’s a bit lame but the crowd, especially the kids, love it. Tourists line up to have their pictures taken with the festival staff, who are dressed as they would have been a hundred years ago.

Gimli, the largest Icelandic population centre outside of Iceland, was settled by groups of Icelanders who left their island home in the 1870s, fleeing volcanic eruptions. Fishing and farming supported these early settlers and when the CPR railway came through the town flourished. It remains a centre for farming and fishing; Pickerel in particular is a Manitoba culinary staple.

I have a big plate of pickerel – a white, flakey, slightly sweet tasting freshwater fish – for lunch one day at Peasant Cookery in Winnipeg. The restaurant is set in an old warehouse in the Exchange District, once the commercial hub of the city. It’s now an enclave of artists and boutiques and trendy eateries. We have drinks late one night at Bailey’s, a century old tap house.

Gimli, owing to its beautiful sandy beaches, is an easy & popular weekend get-away for Winnipegers. It’s another place on this trip where we feel at home … quaint cottages, built under tall, but spindly willows and elms, small flower gardens, narrow lanes leading down to the beach. An ice cream truck. We are transported back to the 50s & 60s, back to our childhood summers at a lake. The nostalgia I feel is surprising. Unexpected but not unwelcome.

And that, gentle reader, is our story of a week in Winnipeg, not exactly a world-class city, nor a wildly popular tourist destination, but that just makes it much easier and more pleasant for the ones who are here. Lots of history, great attractions, and for us, a sense of rootedness. Growing up, our south-eastern Saskatchewan cultural milieu was much the same as Manitoba’s. The Ukrainian influences are especially familiar to us and being here is almost like being “back home”.

Blake, our nine year old fact checker, knows way more than we do about most things, making him a great travel companion. His enthusiastic curiosity is a good fit with our love of exploration.

And it’s been a good week for us to be away from a home that is now Pico-less, to be with family, in familiar places.

So, thanks Blake for a memorable Winnipeg birthday party!