Quote:
Originally Posted by balletomane
Winnipeg is the only major Canadian city that never came to reach its full potential,
|
I'm sorry but I don't understand you here. What do you mean Winnipeg never reached its full potential? How do you define potential and qualify standards saying you've met it?
If I'm correct then you're saying that because the Panama Canal was built, Winnipeg never got as big as it could have been in a specific era. This completely ignores a few things.
For one thing, people look at early Winnipeg and say "Wow! Look at our growth in that time period. Had we continued along that trend, we'd be a city of millions by now." Yet that's patently ridiculous. Winnipeg went from what we'd call a town to a city in a short period of time. In raw numbers, that kind of growth is matched today. As a percentage, of course it's going to be smaller. If you go from $1 to $2 then you've witnessed %100 growth. That's the same for everything. To go from $2 to $3 you've seen %50 growth. It's the law of diminishing returns applied to population growth.
Secondly, it's not like Alberta would have simply missed out on the oil boom. Rail is only important for freight today. While having yards in the city certainly helps out the economy, there are no rail towns cum urban conglomerates extant today. Air travel and freight have taken a big chunk out of rail's importance, so it's important to factor that in as well.
Nobody ever thought Winnipeg was going to be the only city between Toronto and Vancouver. While people thought it could have been bigger, the most hardcore boosterism came from people looking to sell cheap plots of land. Eventually something would have taken a chunk out of Winnipeg's regional importance. Maybe the canal, air travel, or simply the growth of cities to the west. As it happens, it turns out it was all three. Some day, Winnipeg's geographic location may indeed prove fortuitous again. Suggesting that Winnipeg didn't reach its full potential is to say that the city has died and did so about a month after the canal opened.