About Manitoba

Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is one of the three prairie provinces (with Alberta and Saskatchewan) and Canada's fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres (250,900 sq mi) with a widely varied landscape.

The province is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territories of Nunavut to the north, and Northwest. 

​

Territories to the northwest, and the US states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south.

​

Aboriginal peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years. In the late 17th century, fur traders arrived in the area when it was part of Rupert's Land and owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1869, negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba led to an armed uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada, a conflict known as the Red River Rebellion. The rebellion's resolution led to the Parliament of Canada passing the Manitoba Act in 1870 that created the province.

​

Manitoba's capital and largest city, Winnipeg, is the eighth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada. Other census agglomerations in the province are Brandon, Steinbach, Portage la Prairie, and Thompson.

​