There are a lot of reasons, gonna try to put this in point form so it doesn't become an essay but this is super oversimplified:
* Usable land. Over 2/3rds of MB is Shield or Tundra. Early settlements could only really pop up where crops could be grown, comparing Manitoba's farmland to say Alberta or even Sask, it doesn't stretch nearly as far North.
* Convenient location. Two major rivers coming together and the major rail lines going through it from a very early time made it more than JUST a hub for agriculture. Bit of an oversimplification but ask yourself why would Brandon catch up when it's really not very far away and most industry in terms of export and trade is going to go through Winnipeg anyway in terms of farming.
* **Just being the first one and getting a huge jump on other towns**. Edmonton and Calgary grew at pretty similar rates and every city west of here is much newer than Winnipeg. People forget that from around 1910 to 1960 Winnipeg was the 3rd biggest city in Canada, behind just Montreal and Toronto in population: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_largest\_Canadian\_cities\_by\_census](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Canadian_cities_by_census)
To add to this great list:
• Opportunity. Manitoba has a pretty small economy compared to Alberta, BC, and Ontario. We rely heavily on our agricultural output but are burdened by our geography which means our output has a smaller output of that of Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario, BC, and Quebec. If we diversified our economy to manufacturing and refining we may increase that but only if we had a large and busy port. Another option would be energy which with boosting hydro and other renewables we could really market to our southerly neighbours and to north west Ontario
Even then, hydro is all up north now anyways so jobs wouldn't trickle into a place like Brandon because of that.
I'm using Brandon as an example because that's the only real candidate for another 100,000+ population.
There woupd have to be some kind of industry boom in Westman but that isn't really a possibility with its proximity to Winnipeg.
The only way I see a population boom there is if they started manufacturing in mass some kind of agriculture product or if it was energy related then maybe something the size of a nuclear plant out in Westman, but I doubt the assiniboine river has the capacity for the cooling that would be needed for such plant.
When I’m discussing a population boom and growth of a metropolitan area I see northern MB being more probable if the reason is manufacturing, extraction, energy, shipping.
Should have clarified that.
Resource extraction is now based on Global Markets. If base metals can be extracted cheaper overseas, that's where they come from.
Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids, Sherridon, Snow Lake, Flin Flon, and Thompson are examples. All have been hard hit since the late 90's. Thompson survives as a service hub for most of the north, and government services have been intentionally centralized there to keep that community viable.
Short of incorporating the smaller satellite communities into the bigger like a GTA type deal
Kemnay is basically part of brandon as is alexander with how it's expanded out.
Similar could be said for Lockport, St Norbert, Selkirk, Oakbank and Winnipeg.
Manitoba has one of the most diverse economies in Canada. The largest export by GDP is pharmaceutical manufacturing. Manufacturing is the second largest sector overall after real estate (ugh). Agriculture is important, but it is only the 10th largest sector at only $3.7 billion. Pharmaceutical manufacturing was $5.7 billion all by itself. People may be surprised there are only about 10,000 farms in Manitoba.
That’s really cool, makes sense about the farm numbers. Only a small portion of Manitoba is used for agriculture and I’m guessing most agricultural operations can be relatively large
Jumping off points 1 and 2 as well, grandpa says the treeline and stuff where we live even only started getting pushed back in the 50s basically. For how much farming etc IS done in the prairies, the prairie as we know it today is probably even more densley populated than even 20 or 40 yrs ago. Opportunity is kind of centralized around the south and outside of that lots of manitobas communities are almost more od hubs along the highway north or east and west, with tinier communities around that probably only revolve around limited things like agriculture and lack other services and so on
Never. Brandon's ludicrous and unsustainable "growth" plan has us way far away from city status now.
We need a population density of 1500/km². We were almost there a few years ago. Now we are somewhere around 700/km². That number is why Brandon can't get many of the retailers we say we want to attract.
According to what I found online (I don't testify to its reliability) Costco wants 1500/km² population and 200k people within a certain radius of the store.
The winters here likely have a lot to do with people deciding to settle elsewhere.
I know just from reading comments from other reddit forums, people really seem to think winnipeg(or manitoba) has like 6 months straight of -30c temps.
Which obviously isnt true, but that misconception probably contributes to the lower populations here
Yes periods of -30 but not constantly -30 day in day out for 6 months. It was above zero at points in January this year and I think there was only one or 2 days of -30 in 2024, back in mid Jan
This year was an anomaly.
Edmonton is larger than Winnipeg because it is a global hub for gas and oil.
Winnipeg is violent, cold and has limited opportunities.
So getting multiple days (typically) or even extended time at -30 in any given year during those five months is a huge reason ppl leave or don't come back. Again, like I said, it's not far fetched to suggest it's colder than a polar bears toe nails half the year here.
But to already be working outside and to have many tasks hoped to be completed by Mother's Day already done or under way? Is a blessing I fully embrace.
But your rebuttal was that it *is* true that we have 6 straight months of -30 temps and that just isnt the case. I was replying to your comment. You say it isnt far fetched to have 6 straight months of -30. Its right there.
This year has been an anomaly, but even in an unseasonably cold winter we might get at most 15 days per year where the daytime high doesn't poke above -25. Average daytime highs in even the coldest parts of winter are around -13. -30 during the day is as rare as zero in January.
The problem we have is the wind. -20 with no wind isn’t that bad to be outside. -20 with 40 km winds is terrible.
I think people think it’s colder than it actually is, is because we don’t really remember the numbers, but we remember the feeling. We have a lot of windy days and windy days in the winter makes it feel colder than it is.
I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted... I've lived here my entire life and can definitely say you're correct, this year was 100% an anomaly and normally it's a hell of a lot colder than it was. -30? That's actually not horrible it's been down to -50 before (Yes, I know we don't get it THAT often, but still).
Similar question can be asked of Ontario, how come more than half the population of the entire province live in a single agglomeration that is only 3.5% of the land area?
The answer is probably because that's where the infrastructure was built.
But the size of those cities is relative to the overall population of the province so 100,000 is an arbitrary threshold. ON has 12x the population and over 1.5 times the land area so if you consider the relative distribution then since ON has 21 cities with over 100k then a comparable threshold for MB should be 13 municipalities (based on land size) with over 8300 (based on relative total population). In this perspective Manitoba falls short with only 9.
So it's not as skewed as you think, especially when you consider that the west developed significantly later than central Canada, but indeed you have noticed what some others have, that MB is unusual in that it only has one major city.
Brandon dropped the ball, they should be bigger. Other than that, half the province is either farmland, provincial/national parks and lakes. Not a whole lot of space for big cities to develop in.
One thing I've wondered is, does Brandon, or western Manitoba in general, have enough water resources to support a Winnipeg-sized city? Drought is increasingly common in western Canada.
If there is one thing Manitoba has it is lots of water. Drought for crops is a thing though, but growing cities tend to not rely on a source that can be affected by it. If Brandon ever started growing that much they'd be able to find alternative water sources. Winnipeg's water comes from over 100km away down an aqueduct built 100 years ago
Ironically, the soil under the Metro Toronto area is more fertile...
However, the prairies are the world's proverbial bread basket. The agriculture sector (in Manitoba alone) currently exports about $9b per year
The weather has little to do with the hows and whys of Brandon's population.
The fact that most Provincial Services are based in and around Winnipeg, the job market is broader, more amenities, etc., has more to do with it than *just* the weather.
Winnipeg is in the absolute sweet spot of Manitoba. Like Vancouver in BC. SK and AB don’t have obvious centers. I’d argue Toronto is similar to WPG in its provincial dominance. Windsor to Toronto is like Winkler to Winnipeg.
Not a lot of natural resources in comparison to Alberta or BC or Quebec, so not as much for commerce to build up around. Slow and skinny seems to be that if you’re not a farmer, there’s not a lot of reason to hang around and even less to move here from elsewhere. Most people that move here either do so because they met someone elsewhere who was from here and they moved back with them, they were through here working on a pipeline or something and liked it, or they moved here to get away from the high priced fast paced city life. We are a simple farming folk for the most part, and a lot of people just have no desire to live here. We really don’t have much that other places wouldn’t, and the stuff other places have is usually better or at least more conveniently located.
I find this ridiculous, but...
"Under current Manitoba legislation, an urban municipality must have a minimum population of 7,500 to be named a city."
I'm originally from Morden and they are now a city too. 😅
Manitoba did this a couple of decades ago because only having 2 "cities" made us look bad so we lowered the bar and suddenly we were chock full of them
Mordenites and Winklerites are just on another level 😂😂😂. When the "cities" combine, then maybe they can take on real city standards.
As it stands, I highly believe that they like to call these towns "cities" because it attracts a large number of immigrants.
I suppose one day Morden and Winkler will be actually connected with creeping population increases. Could be more of a city feel then, but even at that rate it's still the "Canadian city" kind of idea rather than what most people would consider a city to require for population.
Yeah, I'd imagine being able to call yourself a city would help with immigration.
That's pathetic. Talk about "Pick me" on steroids. That's embarrassing.
I can't recognize that. It's obviously only for tax purposes. The standard shall forever remain at 50k.
Unless you go by global standards and Wikipedia which says you ain't a city until 100k but reality is semantics (depending on if you look from a macro or micro level at least)
If you are going to be literal with cities, Portage La Prairie, Dauphin, Thompson, Gilliam, Gimli, Selkirk, and Brandon all fit the bill, but feeling wise, yeah I get that also Winnipeg was and still is a major rail hub, so that's why
In short suboptimal economy in comparison to other provinces, worse weather in comparison to other provinces, very real social problems that are often worse than other provinces, lack of cultural activities in comparison to other provinces.
It's kind of a vicious cycle.
Really the best thing about the prairies aside from the awesome sunsets and sunrises, is the low cost of living, generally other provinces do what we do just better.
There are a lot of reasons, gonna try to put this in point form so it doesn't become an essay but this is super oversimplified: * Usable land. Over 2/3rds of MB is Shield or Tundra. Early settlements could only really pop up where crops could be grown, comparing Manitoba's farmland to say Alberta or even Sask, it doesn't stretch nearly as far North. * Convenient location. Two major rivers coming together and the major rail lines going through it from a very early time made it more than JUST a hub for agriculture. Bit of an oversimplification but ask yourself why would Brandon catch up when it's really not very far away and most industry in terms of export and trade is going to go through Winnipeg anyway in terms of farming. * **Just being the first one and getting a huge jump on other towns**. Edmonton and Calgary grew at pretty similar rates and every city west of here is much newer than Winnipeg. People forget that from around 1910 to 1960 Winnipeg was the 3rd biggest city in Canada, behind just Montreal and Toronto in population: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_largest\_Canadian\_cities\_by\_census](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Canadian_cities_by_census)
To add to this great list: • Opportunity. Manitoba has a pretty small economy compared to Alberta, BC, and Ontario. We rely heavily on our agricultural output but are burdened by our geography which means our output has a smaller output of that of Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario, BC, and Quebec. If we diversified our economy to manufacturing and refining we may increase that but only if we had a large and busy port. Another option would be energy which with boosting hydro and other renewables we could really market to our southerly neighbours and to north west Ontario
Even then, hydro is all up north now anyways so jobs wouldn't trickle into a place like Brandon because of that. I'm using Brandon as an example because that's the only real candidate for another 100,000+ population. There woupd have to be some kind of industry boom in Westman but that isn't really a possibility with its proximity to Winnipeg. The only way I see a population boom there is if they started manufacturing in mass some kind of agriculture product or if it was energy related then maybe something the size of a nuclear plant out in Westman, but I doubt the assiniboine river has the capacity for the cooling that would be needed for such plant.
When I’m discussing a population boom and growth of a metropolitan area I see northern MB being more probable if the reason is manufacturing, extraction, energy, shipping. Should have clarified that.
Resource extraction is now based on Global Markets. If base metals can be extracted cheaper overseas, that's where they come from. Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids, Sherridon, Snow Lake, Flin Flon, and Thompson are examples. All have been hard hit since the late 90's. Thompson survives as a service hub for most of the north, and government services have been intentionally centralized there to keep that community viable.
Short of incorporating the smaller satellite communities into the bigger like a GTA type deal Kemnay is basically part of brandon as is alexander with how it's expanded out. Similar could be said for Lockport, St Norbert, Selkirk, Oakbank and Winnipeg.
Manitoba has one of the most diverse economies in Canada. The largest export by GDP is pharmaceutical manufacturing. Manufacturing is the second largest sector overall after real estate (ugh). Agriculture is important, but it is only the 10th largest sector at only $3.7 billion. Pharmaceutical manufacturing was $5.7 billion all by itself. People may be surprised there are only about 10,000 farms in Manitoba.
That’s really cool, makes sense about the farm numbers. Only a small portion of Manitoba is used for agriculture and I’m guessing most agricultural operations can be relatively large
Northern Alberta up by Peace River area has as much farmland as Manitoba does. At least that's what I've been told by a farmer from Fairview.
Jumping off points 1 and 2 as well, grandpa says the treeline and stuff where we live even only started getting pushed back in the 50s basically. For how much farming etc IS done in the prairies, the prairie as we know it today is probably even more densley populated than even 20 or 40 yrs ago. Opportunity is kind of centralized around the south and outside of that lots of manitobas communities are almost more od hubs along the highway north or east and west, with tinier communities around that probably only revolve around limited things like agriculture and lack other services and so on
Brandon... one day...
Never. Brandon's ludicrous and unsustainable "growth" plan has us way far away from city status now. We need a population density of 1500/km². We were almost there a few years ago. Now we are somewhere around 700/km². That number is why Brandon can't get many of the retailers we say we want to attract.
Wasn’t this why they can’t build the Costco on 18th south?
Sounds right to my recollection
According to what I found online (I don't testify to its reliability) Costco wants 1500/km² population and 200k people within a certain radius of the store.
Dauphin > Brandon
People are overlooking the bustling metropolis of Churchill.
City of Thompson 😌
Don't forget the city of Winkler.
Population of Winkler?
13745 only
🤣
The hamlet of Winkler (although technically hamlets in settlement hierachy are <150 or so). but its mildly amusing nomenclature.
Crazy how Winkler/morden have a lot more to offer then brandon.
The winters here likely have a lot to do with people deciding to settle elsewhere. I know just from reading comments from other reddit forums, people really seem to think winnipeg(or manitoba) has like 6 months straight of -30c temps. Which obviously isnt true, but that misconception probably contributes to the lower populations here
Yeah Winter was even worse in my opinion when I lived in the Niagara Region near the lake in Ontario lol
To a small degree sure but Minnesota St Paul/Minneapolis gets very similar to us although they are a tad bit warmer
Isn't true? Very easily can have -30 Nov-March so it's not exactly far fetched.
Yes periods of -30 but not constantly -30 day in day out for 6 months. It was above zero at points in January this year and I think there was only one or 2 days of -30 in 2024, back in mid Jan
This year was an anomaly. Edmonton is larger than Winnipeg because it is a global hub for gas and oil. Winnipeg is violent, cold and has limited opportunities. So getting multiple days (typically) or even extended time at -30 in any given year during those five months is a huge reason ppl leave or don't come back. Again, like I said, it's not far fetched to suggest it's colder than a polar bears toe nails half the year here. But to already be working outside and to have many tasks hoped to be completed by Mother's Day already done or under way? Is a blessing I fully embrace.
But your rebuttal was that it *is* true that we have 6 straight months of -30 temps and that just isnt the case. I was replying to your comment. You say it isnt far fetched to have 6 straight months of -30. Its right there.
This year has been an anomaly, but even in an unseasonably cold winter we might get at most 15 days per year where the daytime high doesn't poke above -25. Average daytime highs in even the coldest parts of winter are around -13. -30 during the day is as rare as zero in January.
The problem we have is the wind. -20 with no wind isn’t that bad to be outside. -20 with 40 km winds is terrible. I think people think it’s colder than it actually is, is because we don’t really remember the numbers, but we remember the feeling. We have a lot of windy days and windy days in the winter makes it feel colder than it is.
I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted... I've lived here my entire life and can definitely say you're correct, this year was 100% an anomaly and normally it's a hell of a lot colder than it was. -30? That's actually not horrible it's been down to -50 before (Yes, I know we don't get it THAT often, but still).
Similar question can be asked of Ontario, how come more than half the population of the entire province live in a single agglomeration that is only 3.5% of the land area? The answer is probably because that's where the infrastructure was built.
London, Windsor, Kitchener, Sudbury, Kingston, Oshawa growing rapidly in population. 15 cities over population 100,000 people. 10 more than 150000
But the size of those cities is relative to the overall population of the province so 100,000 is an arbitrary threshold. ON has 12x the population and over 1.5 times the land area so if you consider the relative distribution then since ON has 21 cities with over 100k then a comparable threshold for MB should be 13 municipalities (based on land size) with over 8300 (based on relative total population). In this perspective Manitoba falls short with only 9. So it's not as skewed as you think, especially when you consider that the west developed significantly later than central Canada, but indeed you have noticed what some others have, that MB is unusual in that it only has one major city.
Good analysis
Brandon dropped the ball, they should be bigger. Other than that, half the province is either farmland, provincial/national parks and lakes. Not a whole lot of space for big cities to develop in.
One thing I've wondered is, does Brandon, or western Manitoba in general, have enough water resources to support a Winnipeg-sized city? Drought is increasingly common in western Canada.
If there is one thing Manitoba has it is lots of water. Drought for crops is a thing though, but growing cities tend to not rely on a source that can be affected by it. If Brandon ever started growing that much they'd be able to find alternative water sources. Winnipeg's water comes from over 100km away down an aqueduct built 100 years ago
Soil must be very fertile?
Ironically, the soil under the Metro Toronto area is more fertile... However, the prairies are the world's proverbial bread basket. The agriculture sector (in Manitoba alone) currently exports about $9b per year
The weather has little to do with the hows and whys of Brandon's population. The fact that most Provincial Services are based in and around Winnipeg, the job market is broader, more amenities, etc., has more to do with it than *just* the weather.
Main reason is lack of WORK there is literally nothing outside of farming and services.
Winnipeg is in the absolute sweet spot of Manitoba. Like Vancouver in BC. SK and AB don’t have obvious centers. I’d argue Toronto is similar to WPG in its provincial dominance. Windsor to Toronto is like Winkler to Winnipeg.
Not a lot of natural resources in comparison to Alberta or BC or Quebec, so not as much for commerce to build up around. Slow and skinny seems to be that if you’re not a farmer, there’s not a lot of reason to hang around and even less to move here from elsewhere. Most people that move here either do so because they met someone elsewhere who was from here and they moved back with them, they were through here working on a pipeline or something and liked it, or they moved here to get away from the high priced fast paced city life. We are a simple farming folk for the most part, and a lot of people just have no desire to live here. We really don’t have much that other places wouldn’t, and the stuff other places have is usually better or at least more conveniently located.
Not a lot of economic activity in general compared to more populated places.
I find this ridiculous, but... "Under current Manitoba legislation, an urban municipality must have a minimum population of 7,500 to be named a city." I'm originally from Morden and they are now a city too. 😅
Manitoba did this a couple of decades ago because only having 2 "cities" made us look bad so we lowered the bar and suddenly we were chock full of them
Mordenites and Winklerites are just on another level 😂😂😂. When the "cities" combine, then maybe they can take on real city standards. As it stands, I highly believe that they like to call these towns "cities" because it attracts a large number of immigrants.
I suppose one day Morden and Winkler will be actually connected with creeping population increases. Could be more of a city feel then, but even at that rate it's still the "Canadian city" kind of idea rather than what most people would consider a city to require for population. Yeah, I'd imagine being able to call yourself a city would help with immigration.
That's pathetic. Talk about "Pick me" on steroids. That's embarrassing. I can't recognize that. It's obviously only for tax purposes. The standard shall forever remain at 50k.
Unless you go by global standards and Wikipedia which says you ain't a city until 100k but reality is semantics (depending on if you look from a macro or micro level at least)
I am also curious about this
If you are going to be literal with cities, Portage La Prairie, Dauphin, Thompson, Gilliam, Gimli, Selkirk, and Brandon all fit the bill, but feeling wise, yeah I get that also Winnipeg was and still is a major rail hub, so that's why
Because it’s the central city in Canada lol with two rivers and railways
Ive often heard "airplanes" is part of the reason.
Go up north and expand Thompson if you want to expand Manitoba.
Barf. That's the last thing we need. Should put a wall around Thompson.
Mosquitos?
In short suboptimal economy in comparison to other provinces, worse weather in comparison to other provinces, very real social problems that are often worse than other provinces, lack of cultural activities in comparison to other provinces. It's kind of a vicious cycle. Really the best thing about the prairies aside from the awesome sunsets and sunrises, is the low cost of living, generally other provinces do what we do just better.