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Odd, unexpected and quirky
Manitoba and Winnipeg Fun Facts
Manitoba and Winnipeg Fun Facts -- the odd, the quirky, the interesting and eccentric -- here is odd trivia for your enjoyment: Eternal Youth, better known as Golden Boy was sculpted in France and took his perch atop Manitoba Legislative Building in 1919. He was always tall, always pointed North, and always has clutched a sheaf of wheat, but he wasn’t always golden. It wasn’t until the mid-1940s that he was painted gold, leading to his new nickname. In 1951, he got an upgrade, a shining new coating in 23 karat gold. But sadly time, the enemy of us all, dulled his brilliance. No matter, Manitobans came to his rescue. In 2002, Golden Boy received new gilding, returning to glowing health just in time to be rededicated by Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee visit.
Lake Winnipeg is the tenth-largest fresh water lake in the world. And because it is shallow, it is also among the world’s most dangerous lakes for fishing vessels and other mariners. During a storm, waves can rise so high, and swells become so deep, that a boat can literally be smashed on the lake’s bottom.
Winnipeg Fun Facts - Canada's first movie was made here
The first movie to be made in Canada was made in Manitoba. Sadly, it was no blockbuster, but it was declared a success.
In fact, it was propaganda for the CP railway, singing the praises of Manitoba to entice farmers and their families in Europe to resettle here. The ploy worked.
Before there was McDonald’s there was A&W. The first A&W drive-in in Canada opened in Winnipeg in 1956 and it’s still in operation, though sadly the roller-skating girls who delivered food on those nifty little trays that attached to the side of your car and the truly mammoth frosty mugs are long gone. This papa-burger of fast food restaurants in Canada is at 5095 Portage Avenue.
Winnipeg has 12 per cent of Canada’s musicians but only 2.25 per cent of the nation’s population says Richard Florida in Who’s Your City? How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life – Canadian Edition.
Music City’s Diner
Winnipeg could (and should) be the natural home of a Canadian Music Hall of Fame (but, sadly, plans for that have fizzled).
But we do have The Sal, and its newest restaurant in this local chain of 15 diners and seasonal kiosks at six more locations (including the Goldeyes and
Blue Bomber
Stadiums) has a mini-music hall of (local) fame.
It’s at the newest Sals, south of Downtown on Pembina at Stafford.
Sals serves standard breakfasts and diner fare. Known for Nips (a sandwich) has a Manitoba Music Memorabilia display, part of the personal collection of Sals President and CEO Earl Barish and his family.
You can see Randy Bachman’s first electric guitar, a 1948 Rock-Ola jukebox that plays hits from the ‘50s and ‘60s, one of Burton Cumming’s pianos and a guitar autographed by former Winnipegger
Neil Young.
Winnipeg Fun Facts - The publishing empire that started here
One of the world’s most successful publishers was founded in Winnipeg in 1949. Harlequin Enterprises, publishers exclusively of romance novels, is no longer based here but remains a Canadian success story, selling more than 130 million books each year. They are written by more than 1,000 authors worldwide, in 29 languages.
Founded in 1877, University of Manitoba is the oldest university in Western Canada. UM is also the place where canola, an oil-seed widely used as an industrial lubricant and for cooking oil, was developed by Professor Baldur Stefansson. It ripens to a glowingly golden yellow in August. A gourmet version of canola, organic cold-pressed canola oil, is now lending its distinctive flavour to local cuisine.
There are hundreds of rivers and more than 100,000 lakes in Manitoba. Many remote lakes remain pristine and are still unnamed.
They flow into Manitoba from the south, west and east, but then every river in Manitoba changes course to flow north, emptying eventually into Hudson Bay.
Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Forest, home to aspen, oak, white-tailed deer and 80 species of birds, is the largest urban nature park in Canada.
Ebola, a virus, isn’t on the radar for most Canadians, but it is a major killer elsewhere in the world, notably in Africa. Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory is in the forefront of Ebola prevention and treatment research. A vaccine developed here is showing promise (recently it saved the life of an accidentally-exposed German researcher who did not develop the illness after receiving the vaccine). Usually, between 50 and 90 per cent of those infected with the virus will die. This is the only Level 4 bio-containment lab in Canada one of only a few in the world.
APTN, standing for Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, headquartered on Portage Ave. in Winnipeg, is the first national Aboriginal television network in the world. Former actor and politician Tina Keeper, who lives in Winnipeg, is one of the founders.
A well-known American entertainer played his first game of golf in Winnipeg and liked to tell people that this is where he caught the golfing bug. His name? Bob Hope.
Winnipeg was the first Canadian home of Coke. The first Coca-Cola bottling plant opened here in 1905 and was the company’s Head Office until 1923.
Canada’s Best Hotdog?
A national newspaper has named a Winnipeg hotdog among the five best to be had in Canada.
It’s also – among this select group – the largest and, at just over $11, the most expensive.
Go to Skinners in Lockport and ask for the Super Dog from the oldest continuously-serving hot dog stand in Canada (since 1929).
You’ll get a foot-long with homemade chili, bacon, processed cheese slices, white wine sauerkraut, dill pickles, raw onions, sweet relish, mustard, all loaded onto a foot-long pork and beef Manitoba-made weiner in a City Bakery white bread bun.
The Globe and Mail declared this “fully loaded, quite a beast,” among Canada’s top dogs.
Winnipeg Fun Facts - who invented the cellphone?
The inventor of the cell phone is Winnipegger Marty Cooper, who grew up in the North End.
Winnipeg is the birthplace of the 911 emergency phone number which is now used throughout the developed world.
Winnipeg Fun Facts - Who was Intrepid?
The Man Called Intrepid called Winnipeg Home. William Stephenson, a Winnipeg boy, grew up to become Sir William Stephenson, master spy and personal intelligence adviser to Winston Churchill, then the British Prime Minister. Under his code name, Intrepid, he trained agents who parachuted behind Nazi lines to work with resistance fighters and send information back to the Allied Forces. Though author Ian Fleming would never confirm it, he is also thought to be the inspiration behind James Bond. His own famous character was merely a romanticized version of a spy, Fleming said, adding that Stephenson was the real deal. A statue of Sir William, sculpted by Winnipeg artist Leo Mol, is on display at the Central Intelligence Agency (the most famous spy agency in the world) in Langley, Virginia, United States.
There is also a statue of Intrepid (shown here) in Winnipeg's Memorial Park. He looks North, towards the fountain and Manitoba Legislature.
Winnipeg Fun Facts for hockey fans
Who was the first hockey team to win the Olympics? The Winnipeg Falcons, in 1920.
He shoots! He scores! Winnipegger Billy Mosienko played for the Chicago Blackhawks long before hockey players were treated (and paid) like rock stars. But he achieved something no one else has ever been able to top in the more than half a century since. During the March 23, 1952 game against New York Rangers, Billy Mosienko scored three goals in just 21 seconds.
Winnipeg Fun Facts for history buffs
The first school for girls in Western Canada was established here by Métis sisters Angelique and Marguerite Nolan, in 1829.
Explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, better known by his title, Sieur de la Vérendrye, built Fort Rouge at the place where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet in 1738. For centuries it had been a sacred burial site to the Ojibway and Cree as well as a summer meeting place. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, it became a trainyard. Today, it is known as The Forks.
In Ojibway, the name of the Great Spirit is Manito-bau, giving the province its name.
Winnipeg Fun Facts - Winnipeg's own favourite bear
Winnie the Pooh is a Winnipeg native. In 1914, a young serviceman, Captain Harry Colebourn, bought a bear cub and named it Winnipeg Bear, or Winnie for short. He was sent to England for training, and the playful cub soon became the Regiment’s mascot. When Capt. Colebourn learned they were being sent to France, he donated the bear, now too large to be a pet, to the London Zoo. There, author A.A. Milne and his young son, Christopher Robin Milne, saw Winnie, who became the inspiration for the beloved Winnie the Pooh in Milne’s books which have delighted millions of children ever since.
Winnipeg Fun Facts - snakes by the thousands!
Where can you see the most snakes at one time of anywhere in the world?
The answer is Narcisse snake pits, near the small town of Narcisse northwest of Winnipeg. In spring, red-sided garter snakes emerge in the thousands from the limestone caves where they winter. After they mate in great roiling balls of hundreds, they disperse to their solitary summer hunting range, only to return to the dens in Autumn. The best time to see the Narcisse snakes is right around Mother’s Day, in early May.
Winnipeg Fun Facts - Just what is brain freeze?
OK, it’s a convenience store AND it’s a U.S. franchise that just about blankets the free world, but 7-Eleven has the usual treat options and can cater for breakfast or lunch with donuts, coffee, sandwiches, hot dogs, wings (at some stores), nachos and something no true Pegger can live without: Slurpees®. They’re a crushed ice concoction flavoured with syrup.The Sev (as everyone here calls it) operates in 14 countries and sells more than 13 million Slurpees a month, and yet -- astonishingly for a small city of well under one million people -- each year more Slurpees are slurped here than in any other city on the planet (edging out the second place contender, Detroit, Michigan). Consuming a Slurpee too quickly leads to a common ailment among people in The Peg known as brain freeze. That’s the sudden, needle-sharp (but mercifully usually brief) headache you can get if you don’t slow down and savour your Slurpee.
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