MANITOBA, FLAG OF

Canadian provincial flag consisting of a red field (background) with the Union Jack in the canton and the provincial coat of armsa bison and a Cross of St. Georgeat the fly end; the flag may be described as a defaced Canadian Red Ensign. The coat of arms of Manitoba was established by royal warrant on May 10, 1905, based on an order in council of August 2, 1870, creating the provincial seal. The green shield bears a bison, a beast that provided food and clothing to indigenous groups and early settlers and gave the latter a strong export product. The chief (upper part) of the shield was the red Cross of St. George on a white background, the traditional flag of England. The abandonment of the Canadian Red Ensign in 1965, when the new Maple Leaf Flag was hoisted, led to calls in Manitoba for a distinctive provincial flag. Provincial Secretary Maitland Steinkopf wanted a design competition, while others preferred that the Canadian Red Ensign be adopted by the province. As a compromise it was agreed that the ensign would be used, but only with a substitution of the provincial coat of arms for the Canadian shield. It was felt necessary to have British royal approval since modification of a British flag was involved. This was received in due course, and the first official hoisting of the flag took place on May 12, 1966, the 96th anniversary of the Manitoba Act, which created the province. Whitney Smith History The fur-trade era Native peoples, who had lived in the Manitoba region for thousands of years, first came in contact with Europeans through the fur trade. Explorers searching for the Northwest Passage reached Hudson Bay in 1610, when Henry Hudson navigated the east side of the Bay. He was followed by a number of adventurers, including Thomas Button (1612), Jens Munk (1619), and Luke Fox and Thomas James (1631). At the urging of French Canadian adventurers a trading company, Radisson and Des Grosseilliers, was formed, which in 1670 received a monopoly over the fur trade in an area designated as Rupert's Land. The Hudson's Bay Company established a number of posts along the bay, facing tremendous competition from French traders. It was the French, led by Pierre Gaultier, Lord de La Vrendrye, and his sons, who first extended the trade into the interior; they reached the Red River in the early 1730s and established a series of posts in the area, including Fort Rouge on the present site of Winnipeg. The French trade cut severely into Hudson's Bay Company returns at its post by the bay and forced the company to expand inland. Several decades of intense competition ensued. The Montreal-based North West Company worked closely with the Mtis and resisted the British company's attempts to establish an agricultural colony at Red River. The bitter, often violent competition culminated in the Seven Oaks Massacre of 1816. Increasing violence and declining profits forced the two firms to merge into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. Settlement boom The successful settlement of the western United States in the 19th century encouraged expansionists in Central Canada to look to the western regions of British North America. The agricultural potential of the vast prairie lands west of Red River was documented by the Palliser Expedition, commissioned in 1857 by the British government. Negotiations between the Hudson's Bay Company, the British government, and the government of the new Dominion of Canada resulted in an agreement in 1869 to transfer Rupert's Land to Canada. In 1870, under the Manitoba Act, the territory joined the confederation as a province; the remaining lands were designated the Northwest Territories. The federal government encouraged western settlement, providing land to would-be settlers. There was an initial rush to the new province, but the absence of a rail connection to markets reduced the attractiveness of the region. Construction began on the Canadian Pacific Railway, which, by the early 1880s, had reached Manitoba. Settlement was delayed by a Mtis uprising in 1885 and was further slowed by the continued availability of homestead lands in the United States. Some settlers did come in this period, Ontario farmers, Mennonite immigrants, and Icelandic peoples among them. At the turn of the century, immigration to Manitoba boomed, fueled by massive government advertising, social conditions in Europe, and the decline in available land in the United States.