[biguc]

^That would make for a very sprawled city, even with 5 million people. Still, I've thought something similar: a large city at Grand Beach. Skyscrapers surrounding the lagoon, which would be a large marina.


Anyway, this has been a fun thread. I didn't know about the old plans for Churchill (we shouldn't have given up on them!) or for that massive domed version of the Bay.

The most important thing that most of you have at least alluded to is the question, where do these people come from? There are a couple of counterfactuals that you folks have already brought up: If the Panama Canal weren't built, or if Alberta never had its oil boom. Either scenario pads Winnipeg's population with people otherwise destined for points west. I'm not sure I want to think about Canada--or the world--without the Panama Canal. The Allies losing the Pacific theatre of WW2 would have been ugly. As for Alberta, I guess it's nice there's something between here and the mountains.


One thing about Winnipeg having over 5 million people is that it would be Canada's second largest city. Unless Winnipeg's gain came at Toronto's expense. If Winnipeg really were the Chicago of the North, it's not that much of a reach to think that Toronto could be the Buffalo of the North. Winnipeg would be the seat of English Canadian commerce and culture and a far-flung partner dance partner for Montreal in the English-French tension within confederation. How would Franco-Manitoban culture fare--as a Frenchifying force in English Canada, or completely subsumed by a much more dominant English culture. On Canada's other great schism, less Ontario would be good for the west, and pull a lot more attention to the legacy of Canadian colonialism in the west that the Laurentian Elites are completely oblivious to.

Another way that Winnipeg could have reached 5 million is in a country that is much larger, and never put the breaks on immigration. Winnipeg would hold a similar national importance, but being a far larger city may have more international sway. It would probably be even more diverse a city than now, and maybe Churchill would be a great port city, connected to Winnipeg by highspeed rail.


Anyway, balletome, you mentioned Winnipeg as the only Canadian city to not reach its potential. Before confederation, the maritime cities enjoyed brisk trade with the American coast. Once Ontario and Quebec brought them into the fold, in order to boost central-Canadian industry, the big 2 foisted some stiff tariffs on trade with the States causing the Maritimes to stagnate. I have a hard time believing the tariffs helped anyone, but that's another topic.

I don't believe that the Maritimes would have produced a NYC or even a Boston--there isn't much of a hinterland to support very large cities, and with Montreal easily accessible from the Atlantic, there's little reason for them to have become that large. But they should have at least produced a Providence, a Hartford, and a Syracuse.