Posted Nov 16, 2011, 7:39 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: White Rock BC
Posts: 10,730
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What has helped Winnipeg, surprisingly, is her relative decline.
In 1950 Winnipeg was essentially tied with Vancouver as Canada's third largest city.
While the Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver have mushroomed in population Winnipeg sort of just poked along. In 1950 it had 450,000 and it took til 2000 for it to hit 700,000. It had dropped to Canada's 9th largest city at it's low point.
It has certainly hurt her stature in the nation but this resulted in relatively little of the horrid 1950s to 1980s urban projects which decimated the historic areas of cities like Edmonton. It meant that her sizeable historical stock basically remained intact.
Winnipeg has always been renowed for her artistic, music, cultural vibrancy and political activism. For a city her size the amenities she has in that regard is beyond astounding with a population that takes her cultural vigor very seriously. From the first ballet company {and one of the world's most pretigise} in the Americas to a city that is far, far, far better represented in musical, literary, theatrical, and political than her relative small size would warrant, those things are part of The Peg's soul. No other Western city comes even remotely close.
Now the city's population is growing faster than at anytime in the last 40 years due to strong international immigration and a solid and diversified economy Winnipeg is once again regaining much of her lost stature but has her history and urbane lifestlye intact.
Winnipeg has always been a city of national importance {Portage & Main} is arguable Canada's most well known intersection...........just say those two words and everyone know the city you are talking about. Home to North America's first citywide strike in 1917, Canada's historic immigrant gateway to the West, and a large number of national government departments, a provincial capitol with probably Canada's most magnificant provincial parliament, and a large historic Jewish and old wealth population, Winnipeg was a multiculural city before 1950 when Vancouver and Toronto were as WASP as England.
She has always been a diamond in the rough but now the diamond is getting polished and shining brightly.
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