MADE IT TO MANITOBA, CANADA

The Canada segment of the trip has begun. We arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba on July 19th where we stayed at the Town and Country Campground for 5 nights. 

The trip from Casselton/Fargo to Winnipeg was uneventful, as was crossing the border. The landscape remained flat to the horizon, the countryside platted with neatly sectioned farms, often edged with a line of trees. Giant silos dotted the scape wherever there were farmhouses and at one point we saw a large sugar refinery. I wondered if this was a beet sugar refinery since the climate is too cold for sugar cane. Road construction continued squeezing us into one lane traffic every so often. The road was also quite bumpy in sections. 

Closer to the border there were more canola fields in bloom with their bright yellow gold blanket of color.  The identical landscape continued in Canada, mostly with bright yellow canola fields, only their fields were smaller in size. Road construction continued as well. The only difference was that now mileage and speeds were in kilometres, all signs were in French and English, and the Petro Canada with its Canadian leaf emblem was the main gas station. 

Eventually we approached Winnipeg, a sprawling city in this flat landscape. The next four days were busy, filled with several interesting, arranged tours. There was a lot to see and learn about this province and its major Canadian city.

Day 1: We all had an early breakfast delivery to our door, courtesy of the hosts - breakfast burritos with egg, bacon, tomato and lettuce. Yum! It was a great way to kick-start the day's activities.  An enormous blue bus arrived at the campground to pick us up soon after.

Our guide, Don, was terrific, keeping us well entertained with detailed history about almost every aspect of Winnipeg, as the bus wound through the city and its many landmarks of note: 

• Louis Riel's gravestone in the Sainte-Boniface Cathedral Cemetery, the Canadian politician hanged for treason yet today recognized as the founder of the province of Manitoba and leader of the Metis  Louis Riel 
• the Exchange District, comprising 20 city blocks with early 20th century warehouses, financial institutions on every corner, and skyscrapers Exchange District
• the old warehouse section that was revitalized into chic condos and penthouses 
• the Red River College with its original facade preserved and absorbed into the new modern green building construction behind it
  
• the Millenium Library, that reminded me of our own Seattle library with its glass walls 
• the Theatre District with its old Pantages Theatre where many vaudeville acts were first featured, including Charlie Chaplin who supposedly made the decision to venture into movies after his debut here
  
  
  
• Shaw Park, the baseball stadium 
  
  
  
• The Forks, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, once a traditional gathering place of aboriginal people for thousands of years, and in the 18th and 19th centuries, an important hub of the fur trade. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many immigrants stopped at the Forks on their journey west. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1974 and is home to other sites of historical and archeological significance, as well as museums, monuments, parks and theatres. Forks Market, once a building housing old stables is now boutique restaurants, cafes, and quaint shops. Along the banks of the Red River, one can relax in comfy deck chairs and watch the rented boats float by in summer or skate on the frozen river in winter. The river can freeze 3 to 4 feet and a Zamboni is used to clear the snow.  Forks Market  

  

  along the banks of the Red River, always brown and muddy

  
  

  

  outdoor gathering place and concert venue

  
  

  

  indoor gathering place with boutique restaurants and shops

  
  
• the overturned trolley car replica from the 1919 strike, purposely fashioned to resemble a car on its side in remembrance of the historical event that united workers and eventually led to the recognition of workers' unions and granting collective bargaining rights
  
  
  
• the ritzy section of the city with its striking mega-mansions, traditional designs mixing with ultra-modern homes today, along tree-lined boulevards. Between the lucrative fur trade and becoming the bread basket of the world one hundred years ago, Manitoba experienced an explosive growth during which there were more millionaires per 100 thousand people than in New York City.  
  
  
  
• Hudson's Bay historic building, first opened in 1926 and in operation as a department store until 2020, and now owned by the First People Hudsons Bay Building
  
  
  
• Neil Young's house that Bob Dylan once visited incognito.  The Music scene in Winnipeg continues to be prominent.  This is where several bands and singers got their start. Music of Manitoba  As Don, our guide, pointed out, there were two choices for teens: hockey or playing in a band, so many of them played in bands and continue to do so.

  

  Neil Young lived here

  
  
• the real story behind the classic Winnie the Pooh and the orphaned bear cub named after Winnipeg that accompanied a Canadian soldier on his deployment to England during WWI Winnie
• the statue of Sir William Stephenson, the Winnipeg native, flying ace and spy after whom the James Bond series was fashioned The real James Bond

There was certainly a lot to learn and process but I came away most impressed how proud Winnipeggers are of their city, how many famous folks came from here, how creative they are about preserving old buildings by absorbing the old Chicago style architecture into the modern, sandstone "brutal" architectural designs, and how they preserve and value the various sections of this city. The city was clean and orderly, the streets mostly prefaced with Saint, a reflection of French Catholic roots from the fur trading era. Fur Trade in Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Of course, the indigenous population was here well before any western infiltration.  Manitoba is located on the ancestral land of the Anishinaabeg, Anishininewuk, Dakota Oyate, Denesuline and Nehethowuk Nations and is the Homeland of the Red River Metis.  In the early 17th Century, British and French fur traders began arriving in the area and establishing settlements. Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière together with his wife, the first woman of European descent to settle in western Canada, were the first settlers at the Red River Colony near modern Winnipeg.  The area was also settled by large numbers of Icelanders, Germans, Russians and Ukrainians as well as Mennonites. Today's multicultural population - European, indigenous, and Asian -  includes folks from various African countries as well, making Winnipeg a strikingly diverse city with churches of several different faiths seen throughout the city. About 750,000 residents call Winnipeg home. This is the hub of Manitoba as the remainder of the state is sparsely populated for a state of only around 1.4 million.

Here are a few more facts about Manitoba:

• Location: at the longitudinal center of Canada
• Size: 250,000 square miles
• Population: 1.4 million
• 5th most populous province
• Origin of name Manitoba: "The name “Manitoba” likely comes from the Cree "Man-into-wahpaow", which means "the narrows of the Great Spirit". The words describe Lake Manitoba, which narrows to half a mile at its centre. The waves on the loose surface rocks of its north shore produce curious, bell-like wailing sounds, which the First Nations believed came from a huge drum beaten by the spirit Manitou. The name “Manitoba” was given to the province at its creation in 1870 at the suggestion of Métis leader Louis Riel." Manitoba Canada
• Capital and largest city: Winnipeg, population 767,945 (2023). The name Winnipeg is related to a native word referring to the cloudy, silt-filled Red and Assiniboine Rivers
• Varied landscapes: arctic tundra & Hudson Bay coastline in the north; dense boreal forests, large freshwater lakes & prairie grassland in the center and south
• Ecozones: prairie, boreal plains, boreal shield, taiga shield, Hudson plains
• 100,000+ Lakes and Waterways
• 92 Provincial Parks and Park Reserves
• 4 Canadian Heritage Rivers      
• 2 National Parks       
• 1 UNESCO World Heritage Site - Pimachiowin Aki, boreal forest       
• Time Zone: Central Standard     
• Climate: four distinct seasons – average summer temps 79F; average winter temps 10F     
• 2,300 hours of sunlight annually                
• Average annual precipitation: 19.5 inches         
• Language: English and French, English the most spoken 

Later the same day, we all took a guided tour of the Royal Canadian Mint, an unusual and distinctive building covered with a bronze-lustre mirrored glass to resemble coinage.  Architect Étienne Gaboury designed the triangular-shaped building that sticks out of the surrounding landscape to look like a mountain in the Canadian prairies.

 

We learned that not only is every single Canadian coin in circulation minted here in Winnipeg but so are coins for more than 75 other countries. A Parade of Flags in front of the building represents all the countries for which the Royal Mint manufactures coins. Typically there are up to 80 different international flags on display. 

All of Canada’s coins in circulation have four different characteristics: the Effigy of the Queen, the date, the country, and the face value. Preparations are under way to replace the late Queen's effigy with that of King Charles. 

Our guide took us through each part of the process from coin design to shipping.  All the raw material metals are mined in Canada. Tool steel and layers of electroplated copper and nickel are used to produce the coins and since the early 2000s the Canadian Mint developed the method of imprinting color images on the face of coins. The poppy is the first such coin to perfect the technology of adding color to the intricate designs. 

Most of the 300 employees work 8-hour shifts, some on 12-hour shifts man the German and Japanese machinery, a department dedicated to repairing the machines though no one was there today.  

We saw the heavy steel coils requiring two special lifts to move each coil, that are used to stamp out the blanks. We saw the stamping machines, and two workers packaging the coins ready for shipment overseas. Some coins are shipped in plastic bags, while those going to humid climates are in canvas bags, or in crates. The largest customer is the Philippines. The longest running contract is with Barbados.

Coins are transported in rotating decoy trucks accompanied by guards.

In the 1980s Canada decided to phase out their $1 bill and introduce a $1 coin for cost reasons.  New master dies were produced in Ottawa with the queen's head on one side and a canoe on the back.  These master dies were sent to Winnipeg by courier, but were lost or stolen in transit and never recovered.  The coin had to be redesigned, this time with a bird, the common loon, on the back.  It was soon nicknamed the "loonie."  A decade later a $2 coin was introduced, and it was similarly nicknamed the "toonie."  

Original dies are kept at the Ottawa mint and copies are sent here to Winnipeg. After an 8-hour stamping process the die becomes dull and is cut in half, and each half is sent to a different company for recycling. 
The gift shop offers a wide selection of coins, commemorative circulation sets, Mint-branded items and Canadian themed souvenirs.  Michael got us a toonie, a two-dollar coin, that has a colorful design.  

the open space grand foyer 

Day 2: This was yet another long day of tours and absorbing lots of information. Our first stop was the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, located in yet another extraordinary building known as The Cloud, designed by architect Antoine Predock. 

the Canadian Museum of Human Rights across the street

The building and the layout inside are symbolic.  

Sheets of glass envelop the southwest side of the building, and the windows’ shape resembles the folded wings of a dove, the symbol of peace. 

The Cloud is comprised of 1,669 panes of glass and covers 5,000 square meters.  

The glass was chosen for its environmental benefits; it contains a frit pattern to keep the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  The Cloud provides natural light to the upper levels of the building, and reflects the surrounding prairie landscape. 

 the entrance to the museum

A tour through this museum is not for the faint of heart. The subject matter takes a sobering look at human rights violations throughout history, and the steps taken by activists to create awareness of injustices and how governments redressed past wrongs.  

More often than not, it is a road of struggle, courage, sacrifice (often at the cost of human lives), and resilience before there is acknowledgement of abuse of rights or rectifying past wrongs.  

Following alabaster ramps, the journey took us symbolically from darkness to light, up seven levels and through ten galleries and exhibits dedicated to global human rights issues in general and that of Canada's own abuses of the First Nations in particular.

It is not an uplifting story of humanity by any means but once we ascended to the very top to the basalt Garden of Contemplation, it gave pause to consider that wrongs can be identified and rectified, and that collectively we have a responsibility to do so.

Garden of Contemplation

Examples of past injustices were numerous: 

• internment of Japanese Canadians during WWII (just as in the US); 
• the struggle for women's rights in Canada, eventually secured in 1982; 
• the 1919 strike known as Bloody Saturday which over time led to collective bargaining rights and labor organizations protecting workers; 
• the public acknowledgement of Indian Residential Schools that stripped indigenous children of their language and heritage; 
• the 1885 head tax enacted to discourage further Chinese immigration once the railroads were built with Chinese labor; 
• the recognition of the rights of people with disabilities as outlined in the 1982 Charter; 
• the creation of the Nanavut Territory in 1999 in recognition of the cultural rights of the Inuit; 
• the recognition of the Metis as one of Canada's three aboriginal peoples in 1982, amongst many more.

wall listing the injustices from biblical times to the present from
around the world  - it appears to be a universal human trait unfortunately

The final gallery at the top housed positive messages about recent changes for the good. Grandmothers in many parts of Africa are caring for millions of children orphaned by AIDS. 

In 2006, a foundation in Canada launched a campaign to unite African and Canadian grandmothers. 

Today more than 240 grandmother groups raise funds and awareness in solidarity with African grandmothers to turn the tide of AIDS.  

A project in South Africa drew widespread attention on World AIDS day in 2012 when local grandmothers crocheted squares to "yarn-bomb" a jacaranda tree in front of the Hillcrest AIDS Center in South Africa, as a symbol of hope and commemoration of those who have died of AIDS. 

We are all aware how strength in numbers and solidarity for a cause can help start reforms that lead to the overturning of repression, as was the case in Poland when the Communist government was finally ousted, and Poland once again became an independent and democratic country since WWII.

The final display brought a smile to my face. Activism does not know age limits as the group of elderly women in Victoria, British Columbia proved in 1987.  Known as the "Raging Grannies," their movement has spread into local groups called "gaggles" around the world. They use costumes, props, humor and acts of civil disobedience to promote a sustainable world for their grandchildren and raise awareness about human rights issues. 

At the very top of the building, accessed by elevators, we were treated to a bird's eye view of the city. 

downtown Winnipeg, the railstation, typical hotel of the era, 
and downtown buildings

the iconic Provencher Bridge, a suspended pedestrian bridge
across the Red River

After this heavy, troubling subject matter, we stopped across the street at The Forks Market and enjoyed a fish and chips lunch, wrapped in faux newspaper, bringing back memories of fish and chips take-out in South Africa years ago. 

Only, that was real newspaper!

Afterwards we strolled along the river walk enjoying an ice cream on this warm day and relaxed in one of the deck chairs in the shade of a tree. 

don't be fooled by the classic design of this building!

Later that evening, we gathered for a private Hermetic Code Night Tour of the Manitoba Legislative Building. It was, to say the least, one of the most intriguing tours I have ever experienced. The same tour bus guide, Don, kept us enthralled with the background stories about various aspects of the building design and layout.  

Can one man really have put so much thought and planning into the construction of a legislative building? Apparently so because a book was written by an architectural historian, Dr. Frank Albo, about the symbolism and detail of this imposing building designed by British architect Frank Worthington Simon.  

According to Dr. Albo, the building is a modern reconstruction of King Solomon's Temple and the secret traditions of Freemasonry hidden in plain view.  For the next couple of hours, Egyptian and Freemason symbols, occult icons, and hidden inscriptions and codes embedded in the building's dimensions became revealed.  The architect was a mason himself, versed in Egyptian, Greek and Roman history and mapped the principles of design using the hermetic code of all three civilizations as well as astrology, alchemy, geometry, and numerology. 

Codes and secrets aside, Dr. Albo does maintain that Simon's true intentions were to inspire legislators to act with high principles and values steeped in symbolism by the masonic code. Be that as it may, if all buildings housing legislatures had such a lofty agenda, our government officials would be perhaps more accountable. 

Atop the dome stands the Golden Boy, a depiction of the Greek God Hermes, hence the allusion to the Hermetic Code that inspired the freemasons. 

In the main lobby is a grand staircase flanked by two bronze bison, a typical symbol of Western Canada. 

However, the story goes that they mimic the sacred bulls that protected the entrances of ancient temples from evil. 

On closer inspection, the construction of the lobby features many sacred numbers. The staircase comprises three sets of 13 steps, and the room itself measures 66.6 feet on each side, meant to represent the numerological number 666, which are all the numbers added from 1 to 36, which is the square of 6. The bison are 13 feet long, and there are 13 lights in each hallway. Furthermore, the numbers 5, 8 and 13 are prevalent throughout the building. Coincidence? Or truly part of the Fibonacci sequence? 

Under the dome is a black eight-pointed star set into the marble. There are special acoustics in this area which we all had a turn testing. A whispered wish bounced right back at us. 

Whatever secrets this building contains, it is beautiful and imposing, and must surely be an uplifting place to conduct legislative business. 

Day 3:

This morning we all went to the Assiniboine Park Zoo, located in the 1,000-acre Assiniboine Park along the Assiniboine River.  

The Zoo is home to 150 animal species but the main attraction we came to see is the Journey to Churchill exhibit. And the specific interest to us is that Dean Alker (Michael's distant cousin who lives in our area) and his business partner created the computer animated design for the newly planned exhibit about a dozen years ago. We went to see how closely the actual exhibit matches the design concept.  We saw polar bears and watched a short movie in the 360-degree Aurora Borealis Theatre.  It was a good preview of Churchill and the tundra where we were heading to next. 

the underwater viewing tunnel called Sea Ice Passage
where you can view polar bears and seals swimming

this big guy was enticed to the viewing window with strawberries
and lettuce leaves

After the Journey to Churchill exhibit, we strolled along to see more exhibits, enjoyed a flurry (Canada's version of a DQ blizzard) and lingered in the gardens with the bees and butterflies. Overall, it was a welcome change of pace to be in nature after two days of intense information and combing through buildings and various galleries. 

this elk has quite the rack

From the Zoo, we moved on to another attraction in the park called The Leaf, newly opened this past fall.  The Leaf 

The main appeal for us was the indoor waterfall, reportedly the tallest indoor waterfall in the world. 

We walked through the tropical jungle, where the heat and humidity were pretty intense on an already hot day, and felt dwarfed by the gigantic palms. 

The next biome was the Mediterranean section where we also had a quick lesson about the Cacao plant and fruit. 

The Babs Asper display House featured several interesting plant creations: 

In the Butterfly House we saw a couple of butterflies but I think they felt as languid as I did by then on this hot day in this hot space, so they were not very active. 

It was yet again a full day of sightseeing and learning. We gathered for our usual Happy Hour at the Polks and Cannons, then headed back to our rigs for dinner on our own and to relax and unwind. 

Day 4: We were all ready for the kick-back day built into our full schedule. We need to prepare for the next section of the trip that will take us to Churchill and ready ourselves for the 281-mile drive tomorrow. 

Most of us caught up with housekeeping chores and laundry, did some grocery shopping and packed for the drive. It rained in the morning but it remained hazy the rest of the day with bad air qualtiy due to the smoke from the Canada fires. 

Dinner tonight was with the group at Junction 59 Roadhouse. We got to choose our entrees from the menu which featured mostly beef dishes. 

dinner with the group - Sheila&Gene and
Jan&Dean

After dinner, we stopped at the grocery store for a few items and headed back to the RV Park. 

Our stay in Winnipeg has come to an end and tomorrow is travel day towards the next leg to Hudson Bay.