Introduction

William R. Morrison, University of Northern British Columbia, 2003

What forces transformed millions of hectares of grassland into one of the world's great food-producing areas in one generation?

At the time of Confederation, in 1867, what are now the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta were home, as they had been for millennia, to First Nations people following their traditional way of life. They were joined by a few hundred white newcomers and about 9,000 Métis in the Red River Colony, with what is now Winnipeg at its centre. There were also a number of Hudson's Bay Company posts in locations ranging from York Factory in the North to Rocky Mountain House in the foothills. By 1921 there were 610,000 people in Manitoba, 775,000 in Saskatchewan and 588,000 in Alberta.

Not only was there a huge population explosion after 1900, but so many of the immigrants came from backgrounds other than British or French that the ethnic composition of the entire Canadian population was changed forever. Russians, Poles, Estonians, Icelanders and Ukrainians (the biggest single group) came in large numbers, as well as groups with a common religious identity, such as the Mennonites and Hutterites from Europe, and the Mormons from the United States.

The story of the Prairies is not just a story of agriculture-the urban history of this part of Canada in this era is also significant. Winnipeg, in particular, was a major industrial centre by 1920, and thus an important site of trade union activity.

The Prairies were a new land then, politically, ethnically and geographically different from the older parts of the country. The story of the Prairies in this period is in many ways the story of Canada, and to learn what made these provinces what they are is to understand a great deal about the dynamic forces that created the modern country we now live in.