Manitoba

Manitoba is a province located at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is one of the three prairie provinces and is the fifth-most populous province in Canada, with a population of 1,208,268 as of 2011. Manitoba covers an area of 649950 km2 with a widely varied landscape; the southern and western regions are predominantly prairie grassland, the eastern and northern regions are dominated by the Canadian Shield, and the far northern regions along the Hudson Bay coast are arctic tundra. Manitoba is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territory of Nunavut to the north, and the US states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south.

More than 90% of Manitoba's population lives within the far southern regions of the province, where its arable land and largest cities are located. The northern region of Manitoba, which encompasses nearly 70% the province's total area, is mostly undeveloped consisting primarily of remote and isolated communities amongst vast wilderness. Winnipeg is the capital and most populous city in Manitoba by a significant margin, with 730,018 people residing in the Winnipeg Capital Region. Other major cities in the province are Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Thompson, Winkler, Selkirk, Dauphin, Morden, and Flin Flon.

Aboriginal peoples have inhabited what is now known as Manitoba for over 6,000 years. In the late 17th century, fur traders first arrived in the area when it was part of Rupert's Land and owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1867, negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba resulted in an armed uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada, a conflict known as the Red River Rebellion. The resolution of the rebellion led to the Parliament of Canada passing the Manitoba Act in 1870, officially creating the province of Manitoba.

Manitoban culture is influenced by the province's strong Métis, First Nations and Inuit traditions along with its multicultural and multilingual immigrant heritage, and is well known for its contributions to music, theatre, dance, literature, television, film, and the visual arts. The province has a diverse market economy with strengths in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, mining, energy, aerospace, food processing, technology, education, financial services, and tourism. Because of Manitoba's geographic location at the centre of the North American continent, it experiences an extreme climate. The southern regions of the province fall into the humid continental climate zone with very cold winters and very hot summers, while the northern region of the province falls into the subarctic climate zone with long, very cold winters and brief warm summers. The northern coastal areas are unaffected by the warmer summers of the interior, allowing polar bears to thrive in spite of the relatively southerly latitude.

Etymology
The name Manitoba is believed to be derived from the Cree, Ojibwe or Assiniboine languages. The name derives from Cree manitou-wapow or Ojibwa manidoobaa, both meaning "straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit", a place referring to what are now called The Narrows in the centre of Lake Manitoba. It may also be from the Assiniboine for "Lake of the Prairie".

The lake was known to French explorers as Lac des Prairies. Thomas Spence chose the name to refer to a new republic he proposed for the area south of the lake. Métis leader Louis Riel also chose the name, and it was accepted in Ottawa under the Manitoba Act of 1870.