BRANDON

city, southwestern Manitoba, Canada, lying on the Assiniboine River, 131 miles (211 km) west of Winnipeg. It was founded after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1881) near a Hudson's Bay Company trading post, Brandon House, that had been named for Douglas, Duke of Brandon, a company shareholder. Located on the Trans-Canada Highway and two transcontinental railroads, the city is now an important transportation centre. Known as the Wheat City of Canada, it serves as a marketing and distribution centre for a rich grain-producing area and processes flour, meat, fertilizers, chemicals, and petroleum products. Brandon is the site of Brandon University (1899), Assiniboine Community College, and a government agricultural research farm. It is a tourist hub for Riding Mountain National Park to the north and Spruce Woods Provincial Park to the southeast. Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, with the International Peace Garden (partly in the United States), is to the south. Annual events include the Royal Winter Fair and the Manitoba Provincial Exhibition. Inc. 1882. Pop. (1991) 38,567.