Manitoba
is one of the 10 provinces of Canada, located about the geographical center of
the country. It is bordered by the provinces of
Ontario (east) and Saskatchewan
(west), the territory of Nunavut (north), and the US states of
North Dakota and Minnesota to
the south. Manitoba is at the centre of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, with a
high volume of the water draining into Lake Winnipeg and then north down the
Nelson River into Hudson Bay. The state capital is Winnipeg.
Manitoba has been home to First Nations and Inuit peoples. The onset of the fur trade in the 18th century brought French and Scottish traders and settlers, leading eventually to Manitoba's birth as a province in 1870. Following the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, Manitoba attracted people from around the world.
Today, the province is home to abundant fertile farmland, rich deposits of metals and minerals, forest resources, fish and wildlife. Manitoba's picturesque lakes and rivers have created vast hydroelectric resources. Manitoba’s climate is characterized by four distinct seasons, with warm summers and cold winters. In much of southern Manitoba, growing seasons are longer than in the agricultural regions of Alberta and Saskatchewan, with more frost-free days. Oil has been produced in Manitoba since 1951. The current oil production is located in southwest Manitoba along the northeastern flank of the Williston Basin, a sedimentary basin that also occupies portions of southern Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. Forests make up about half of the province land base. Manitoba's 100,000 lakes and numerous rivers, streams and marshes are home to important fish habitat that are the basis of sport and commercial fisheries.
