Issue link: http://read.canadatravelguides.ca/i/651528
TRAVEL GUIDE TO CANADA MANITOBA I t is smack in the middle of Canada, a blend of rugged Precambrian Shield granite lush with forests and speckled with lakes, and rolling hills and vast prairie to the south. That prairie was long-ago glacier-era Agassiz Lake's bottom, which later became the traditional territory of Aboriginal people, and today it is rich agricultural land dotted with prosperous towns and villages. Winnipeg, the province's capital city, sits on the prairie just west of the precise longitudinal centre of Canada, (30 km east of the city, on the Trans- Canada Highway at 96 degrees, 38 minutes and 45 seconds west), and has the largest Aboriginal population of any Canadian city, as well as a huge variety of immigrants from dozens of Eastern and Western European, African and Asian nations. For more than a century, southern Manitoba has seen frequent waves of immigration. Place names around the province still refl ect the fi rst waves of Scots, English, and French, then Mennonites and Ukrainians. Most recently, Southeast Asians have settled in, and these new Canadians have helped spark an utterly unique combination of local cuisine and culture; pick any ethnic neighbourhood and you'll fi nd dozens of tiny, family-run dining spots boasting food styling from Ethiopian to Vietnamese. In early August, you'll be able to visit almost four dozen countries in the space of two weeks through the Folklorama festival, where immigrants and their children create pavilions that showcase their food, history, and culture ( www.folklorama.ca ). NATURAL FANTASIES This province also offers up abundant nature in virtually all its forms, from stunning sweeps of raw evergreen and boreal forests, to lakes and river systems in its wild Canadian Shield region, and three vast lakes, also remnants of ice-age Lake Agassiz. One, Lake Winnipeg, ranks among the world's largest freshwater lakes. All three, including Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis, make fertile fi shing grounds, edged by natural sandy beaches, rocky outcrops, and plenty of cottage country for urbanites seeking all-natural getaways. Paddlers, hikers, recreational fi shers, hunters, photographers and wildlife viewers love these wild areas, where remote lodges and small towns sit tucked away in thick lake or riverside forests. Hunting and a KaLeiDoSCoPe of CULtUreS BY JUDY WAYTIUK a KaLeiDoSCoPe of CULtUreS Manit Ba WinniPeG • SHUtterStoCK/HenrYK SaDUra