Winnipeg, aside from the aforementioned problems, is a Canadian centre of freemasonry.
The Manitoba legislature, for example, is a Masonic temple. This helps explain a lot about Manitoba politics.
The Canada Political Thread
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Winnipeg, aside from the aforementioned problems, is a Canadian centre of freemasonry.
The Manitoba legislature, for example, is a Masonic temple. This helps explain a lot about Manitoba politics.
What does it explain about Manitoba politics?
Indeed, Winnipeg is a dump. Not much more than ugly run down sprawl. The most interesting part, the downtown historical area, is overrun with homeless and beggars.
The beauty of Manitoba is in its wild biodiversity. Its a major transition point between several distinct ecosystems. Theres grassland in the southwest and tundra in the north with aspen parkland and Canadian shield inbetween. There's 100 000 lakes in Manitoba, including lake Winnipeg, which is one of the biggest in the world. Plus the arctic shores of Hudson bay. All this adds up to world class hunting and fishing. Deer, caribou, elk, moose, bears, wolves, cougars, tons of waterfowl and freshwater fish...
Hot (for canada) dry summers and bitter cold winters with lots of snow.
The white rural communities are staunchly conservative in politics, even if they're not very religious anymore... But the large indigenous population turns Winnipeg NDP too often which does weigh our politics down. Too many outstretched hands. Or maybe its all those darn masons fault.
Indeed, Winnipeg is a dump. Not much more than ugly run down sprawl. The most interesting part, the downtown historical area, is overrun with homeless and beggars.
The beauty of Manitoba is in its wild biodiversity. Its a major transition point between several distinct ecosystems. Theres grassland in the southwest and tundra in the north with aspen parkland and Canadian shield inbetween. There's 100 000 lakes in Manitoba, including lake Winnipeg, which is one of the biggest in the world. Plus the arctic shores of Hudson bay. All this adds up to world class hunting and fishing. Deer, caribou, elk, moose, bears, wolves, cougars, tons of waterfowl and freshwater fish...
Hot (for canada) dry summers and bitter cold winters with lots of snow.
The white rural communities are staunchly conservative in politics, even if they're not very religious anymore... But the large indigenous population turns Winnipeg NDP too often which does weigh our politics down. Too many outstretched hands. Or maybe its all those darn masons fault.
As far as I know Alberta fucked up massively when it comes to oil exploitation. Instead of setting up a sovereign national wealth fund similar to Norway, the profits from oil mining go into the pockets of foreign corporations that don't even bother to clean up the mess. Besides a few rednecks making the big bucks, Canadians as a whole have not seen any benefit.
Alberta began to build up a fund similar to Norway. They fell on hard times and the government blew through it.
Good points. I have often said that if western Canada was to separate Winnipeg can't come (due to their voting patterns). We will take everything in the south and Interlake region though
. You are correct in that parts of Manitoba (Steinbach, Morden, etc.) are way more conservative than almost anywhere in Alberta. This is due to Mennonites, many of whom own firearms and even serve in the military by the way (I know this from personal experience). There was also a large influx of Russian-Germans from Kazakhstan and other places that are Baptist and Pentecostal about a decade or so back and they have very large families. The lakes are unbelievable in summer. Grand Beach is awesome for one with its white sand beaches, dunes and blazing hot weather. As far as hunting - in Alberta we can start in some areas in October, in Manitoba I remember freezing my arse off in November when the rifle general started. I think you are correct on the urban blight. Calgary has nothing that compares to the north end or portage place area of Winnipeg for crime and blight. We also have a clean river, fairly safe downtown and more mild weather. We have almost no decent lakes here though. Much of my family lives in Manitoba so I am not hating on it.
Norway has a wealth fund set up by its federal government.
Alberta has little to do with its own wealth when its used as a cash cow for the country at best, and as a punching bag for the country at worst.
Imagine having a federal government that actively promotes, grows and fosters a strong and Canadian centric energy program. Imagine that Quebec and the Maritimes paid their own bills. Imagine the Irvings and the Trudeaus used Alberta oil rather than Saudi oil to run their refineries. Imagine western Canada could get their product to markets at a fair price rather than be forced to sell to the US at a low rate.
Imagine.
Quebec could do more than pay their own bills, they could become a financial powerhouse - if they exploited the vast reserves of shale gas we're sitting on. But noooo, being pro-fracking means you're worse than Hitler, so forget it. In any case, why bother when your power to leech off AB is guaranteed by the Federal government, and not fracking wins you points with the lefties/greenies.
Good points. I have often said that if western Canada was to separate Winnipeg can't come (due to their voting patterns). We will take everything in the south and Interlake region though
I think the Mennonite communities have held onto their faith for the most part also. Maybe the young are drifting away from it these days, I don’t really know. What stands out to me is how industrious and independent they are. Drive through and Mennonite area and you’ll see a ton of signs at the end of people’s driveways advertising their business ventures, mostly tradesmen. There’s been a lot of talk around here of surviving the great reset by building up independent self sufficient communities based around a common faith/ideals. The Mennonites are mostly there already and they’ve shown it through all this mess. Southeastern Manitoba has some of the lowest vax rates in the country.
I grew up in the very southwest where it was settled by British people almost exclusively. I now live a little further north where the prairie turns to parkland. There are pockets of Mennonite near me but it was mostly settled by Poles and Ukrainians, interestingly enough. They came late to the game and were given the marginal farmland. It’s beautiful country though, if you ask me, and great for wildlife.
Typical aspen parkland - rolling forested hills with meadows and small lakes in the low areas.
The Ukrainians that settled this area were also very devout to their religions and independent from the British communities to the south. They didn’t even get electricity around here until the 50’s. Many boomers from the area grew up speaking Ukrainian in the home and have accents when they speak English. It’s common for a town of a few hundred people to have two or three majestic churches like this -
They will have three cemeteries on the edge of town, one next to each other, labeled Roman Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox. Driving through the country side you’ll come across a random church like the one above, a testament to their past community spirit, although the young people today aren’t very religious. I think most of the churches sit empty.
Go a few hours further north and there’s cold clear deep lakes with turquoise water like you’d find in the mountains. This is Little Limestone lake, very close to where my girlfriend is from. There’s zero development and if you venture up there you can probably have it all to yourself for the day.
Nice photos!
Manitoba is very beautiful and I miss the lakes and cottage country. I think every third person is of Ukrainian descent. Though most people are now mixed with other European heritage.
Note for American readers that Mennonite does not refer to some kind of Amish. They are just regular normal folks with a church (e.g., Mennonite Brethren) that is similar to Baptist. In fact in the last church I attended in Alberta both pastors last churches were Mennonite.
I m part of the Russian German Mennonite Diaspora. Living currently in Ontario but since we got bunch of kids now we really thinking about moving back. We lived one hour away from the Sask border on the highway but since during the oilboom of the 2010s housing got really expensive we decided to go to Ont first. Now its the other way round Ontario sucks and Manitoba is affordable. I got bunch of relatives in the Steinbach area and yeah the are all antivaxx. I think you can still talk German at the bank to the clerks there or buy a car from a German speaking sales person.
There is also different types of mennonites out there. I would include the Hutterites or "die Hutterer" in that group too. They live in colonies and are off grid as far as I know. I worked myself construction with the so called Holdeman mennonites. These guys are pretty close to Amish no music no internet no alcohol no living in town no public schools (they have their own) certain dress code etc. They do drive cars though and use powered modern equipment when it comes to labor/business. Some good old boys. Then you got the Canadian German Type and a good number of guys like me... born in Russia with German citizenship, immigrated to Germany then moved to Canada... and God knows how many others there are...
But yeah Manitoba is the place to be and except for some Philippinos at Subway or Timmies its white as a snowcat.
Is it possible to join a mennonite or hutterite community as an outsider? I've heard they can be eager for new blood but this is only rumour.
Exactly.
And imagine we had 3 guys in a row like King Ralph. Not that we should look to politicians as a solution, but imagine!
Hahaha! Me and my dad used to travel down south from Thompson every deer season. Many a day I froze my ass off in a tree stand. I couldn't wait to shoot a buck so that I could warm my hands gutting the damn thing. The north is NDP territory for sure, but if you like pickerel fishing, it's paradise. I don't remember needing tags for them either. Haha. The bugs can be unbearable at times, especially the bulldogs ( I think they might call them horse flies here in Alberta) They are big, they bite something fierce, and will swarm your vehicle.Good points. I have often said that if western Canada was to separate Winnipeg can't come (due to their voting patterns). We will take everything in the south and Interlake region though
My brother just brought his family back to Manitoba after 20 years in Alberta. Bought a cheap house in a small lake town and doesn’t regret a thing.
How long since you’ve been back home? Brandon is pretty far from being as white as a snowcat now. Seems like everyone in the service sector is Indian or Filipino and it’s accelerating at warp speed the last five years. It’s still 99% white in the rural though.
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Maybe Mcfreezy can tell you about the Mennonite situation but I don’t think you want to join a Hutterite colony. They truly live communally. You work for the colony and all the money goes in the colony coffers and they provide you with everything you need. You eat communally at long tables in the dining hall... that type of thing. It’s working communism basically. Definitely not for me.
I’ve heard the rumours too about some colonies needing to spice up their gene pool... not sure how often it happened but apparently if your tall, blue eyed and blond haired they were paying for your baby batter.
I have family in Steinbach as well. Married into my family who were in the Sturgis area of SK. During the commie Douglas years, my grandpa had some of his 'illegal' saw mills across the border in MB. I loved going over there to Duck Mountain as a kid and visiting family or going out on the horses and skidoos. You are right, its a world apart, being so far removed from the woke globohomo. My cousins from Kenora were raving about it again this Christmas at just how great it is right now. Its exciting times to live in a picture perfect little village that is finally getting some attention - in a good way, for now. He did mention that government workers from Regina have been snapping up second homes in the area, which has mixed reactions from the locals.
I have some Mennonites in my family now, but the Hutterites have always been pretty closed off. They do sell with us, and we would always buy their turkeys for big family meals. I got to know some of the Hutterite boys through baseball. They had a team and would play our Christian camp for a tournament each summer. Much more insular than the Mennonites and the kids were certainly 'strange' to us.
Don’t underestimate the influence of masons in politics. Voting patterns ultimately make little difference to political outcomes: what matters is who wields the power. The fact that the Manitoba Legislature is a Masonic Temple is well known, and this plays a key role in the province’s politics (first province to implement a vaccine pass, for example).
Comparing Alberta to Norway is like apples and oranges as Laner pointed out above, it is true that there’s been some serious financial mismanagement in the province in the past couple of decades but that’s true of most provinces. Under the provincial Liberal governments of McGuinty and Wynne, Ontario went from a “have” to “have not” province for the first time ever and they rotally screwed up plans to build natural gas plants in Mississauga, opting instead to invest in solar which saw millions, maybe even billions of tax payer’s dollars wasted and residential hydro bills tripling in cost.
Alberta also saw it’s population increase at a rapid pace and didn’t have the infrastructure to support the growing population, traffic in Fort McMurray was a nightmare for years, they finally built new highways and overpasses, too little too late though as many people left after oil crashed. As I mentioned before, the Toronto press loves to bash Alberta and a lot of people in other provinces are envious of the success and higher standard of living that Albertans enjoy, personally I think they’re a bunch of ungrateful idiots for the most part.
Another thing is that a lot of Canadians are terribly misinformed about oil and gas, how big a part of our national economy it is and how utterly dependent we are on fossil fuels. I don’t know what they teach kids in schools these days but it seems like some folks don’t understand how the lights in their house require to energy function and where their home heating comes from. Many seem to think that oil and gas are sunset industries that won’t be around much longer and that solar/wind will replace fossil fuels within a few years.
Anyway, oil is at $85/barrel so things are definitely looking good for Alberta, many things have happened in recent years since the crash and Canadian companies are running a lot leaner, their heavy oil competitors aren’t producing so much these days and oil sands oil is being exported all over the world.
financialpost-com.cdn.ampproject.org
Alberta also saw it’s population increase at a rapid pace and didn’t have the infrastructure to support the growing population, traffic in Fort McMurray was a nightmare for years, they finally built new highways and overpasses, too little too late though as many people left after oil crashed. As I mentioned before, the Toronto press loves to bash Alberta and a lot of people in other provinces are envious of the success and higher standard of living that Albertans enjoy, personally I think they’re a bunch of ungrateful idiots for the most part.
Another thing is that a lot of Canadians are terribly misinformed about oil and gas, how big a part of our national economy it is and how utterly dependent we are on fossil fuels. I don’t know what they teach kids in schools these days but it seems like some folks don’t understand how the lights in their house require to energy function and where their home heating comes from. Many seem to think that oil and gas are sunset industries that won’t be around much longer and that solar/wind will replace fossil fuels within a few years.
Anyway, oil is at $85/barrel so things are definitely looking good for Alberta, many things have happened in recent years since the crash and Canadian companies are running a lot leaner, their heavy oil competitors aren’t producing so much these days and oil sands oil is being exported all over the world.
Canada's oilsands exports reach record with new link to U.S. Gulf Coast
financialpost-com.cdn.ampproject.org
I’ve always said that I’m happy to keep feeding my pig of a truck at a buck thirty a litre because high oil prices are good for almost everybody. I root for the farmers to get good weather every year too, for the same reason.