A traveler coming from the east through the forests of Ontario will find Manitoba bursting upon the senses with space, light, and colour, with towns and cities as varied as the settlers themselves.

The boreal forest is close by, blanketing the northern two-thirds of Manitoba with a lake-dotted wilderness that remains virtually unpopulated and the sunny south refutes the old equation of prairie equals flat. West of Whiteshell Provincial Park, the land rises in stone and gravel ridges, flattens around Winnipeg, turns marshy south of Lake Manitoba, dips into the valleys of the Pembina and Assiniboine rivers, then rises again in the western uplands.

The towns and cities are as varied as the land, and herein lies Manitoba’s special appeal. Settlers from Europe and eastern Canada established towns with character, not just as supply centres for farmers, and proudly added their ethnic flavour.