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Alright anybody who lives in Winnipeg... I'm looking to learn about the city & surrounding area I suppose.

My best friend is planning on moving out there & is trying very hard to get me to go with her. Given that I'm currently fed up with this particular provincial gov't and am in dire need of sating my wanderlust anyways, I'm probably going to go with her (although for me it won't be until mid-may/early June).

So....

Who is the Premier of Manitoba? What party is he with? What sort of things has he/she promised/accomplished?

Who is the Mayor of Winnipeg & is there anything of interest going on in municipal politics right now?

What are the good parts of the city & what are the bad parts?

What is the job situation like? Lots of jobs, no jobs, good pay bad pay?

How is the public transit in the city?

And, since I'll readily admit that I'm rather ignorant of the prairies & anything east of the Rocky Mountains, I'm curious is there much farmland just on the outside of the city? Is the city "contained" or is it sprawling kind of like the Greater Vancouver General Lower Mainland (or whatever the proper order of those words is...) Reason I'm curious about farmland is because I am kind of hoping there'll be horse farms within a relatively accessible distance.



Thanks, (Hope I get at least a few questions answered lol)

   

You don't sound convinced.



Why you're not moving to Alberta I'll never understand.



Gary Doer / NDP / More taxes and other typical left wing stuff.



Sam Katz. Yes, they are still moaning over the loss of the Jets and whose to blame



One and the same, but anything closer to the ring road is best for housing. Portage and Main is windest spot in Canada but loses appeal quickly, especially in winter.



What you would expect from a have not province. Remember BC in 1992, that is Manitoba today.



Car city.



LOL Half the province is a farm or flood plain depending on time of year. You'll be able to watch the horses from your bungalow adjacent to the ring road. (If its not 'buggy' that day)

PS Its "Winterpegers"

   

Winnipeg isn't as bad as GFPB makes it out to be by even 1/4. While property values are lower than most areas, they are climbing. You have access to excellent post secondary education at the U of M, U of W and Red River Community College. There are excellent parks parks and lakes close by. Head up to Grand Beach or Hecla for the summer and you'd think you were on the ocean, white sand beaches and and the lake stretching out to the horizon. I grew up in Victoria and lived in Winnipeg for six years and in the end chose Winnpeg to buy a house in and was able to buy a sizeable acreage 3 hours north of the city, near Dauphin. While I like to visit Bring Cash, I'm not a big fan of Premier Campbell Soup.

Gary isn't that bad of a Premier and not that far to the left. he's more of a Liberal than a socialist. My dad(can't find a bluer tory) used to be a labour negotiator and VP for the MGEA when Gary was the President. he said gary was the right man in the wrong party.

The nicest part of the city to live in is the South west area. I'm partial to River heights, as that's where we bought our house, right off of Academy Road and Cambridge. North center of Winnipeg, outside the exchange District is a place to avoid. If you like people with common sense, so is Wolsley.

   

The bad part is that naked guy in the park down from city hall just up from the Red River . If its still there you girls will have a chuckle . I can't even remember the name of that statue and if it is an old replica of a Russian leader. anyway you're moving to Winnipeg Its floody cold there (Floods in the spring and cold in the Winter) There really is much there to do and well populated . Quite a transition from BC

   

Louis Riel isn't a Russian Bam Bam. Come winter there is the Festval du Voyageur in St. Boniface(the largest French community west of Montreal). There's plenty of activities at The Forks too. Mosquitos however can be vicious if it has been warm and wet in spring and early summer.
try this site

   

Haha...

So I can expect

Biting cold in the Winter
Floods in the Spring
Mosquitos in the Summer
...anything in the Autumn or is this one of those places that skips Autumn & just kind of jumps into winter?

Grainfedprairieboy -- I probably don't sound convinced because I'm still not entirely convinced. Chances are I'll go out there, whether I'll stay very long...that remains to be seen. LOL

As for why I'm not moving to Alberta, if I can think of a decent reason I'll post it, but for now I'm simply content to sit from outside & admire the within... lol

I was only 10 years old in BC in 1992, and my parents were not real keen on discussing politics with me... lol A child's perspective of "life in BC in 1992" is going to be drastically different than that of an adult.. so someone want to fill me in? lol

What is this "ring road" ?

   

It's a Road that forms a Ring around the city.

   

The Perimeter Highway.

   

ouch ! now I know I look stupid

   

First of all, the Ring Road is in Regina. In Winnipeg we call it the Perimeter Highway. Same basic thing, but Winnipeg's goes all the way around and is way longer.

Transit is good if you are downtown or close to it. Once you get out into the suburbs at all, it sucks. There were plans to fix that, but then we elected Sam Katz and he couldn't figure out how to get kickbacks to his business buddies, so he killed them (the plans, not his buddies).

Gary Doer is okay as a Premier. He's won some awards from business groups, so those yapping about him being too far left are just demonstrating their own ignorance. We've got the second lowest unemployment rate in the country, the economy is good, houses are still relatively cheap, The cost of living is livable, the air is clean.

We are moving ahead with some environmental initiatives that promise to be profitable, which is why Doer is winning awards.

Sam Katz is our mayor. The only notable thing he has done is bring a decent ball club to town, and that was long before he entered politics. As mayor he is secretive, dictatorial, undemocratic, and basically has his head up his ass. He'll be gone soon though, so no big deal.

Our downtown is going through a bit of a renewal right now. There are apartments and art studios going up in the Exchange District and the University of Winnipeg is drawing students to the area. There are luxury Condos going up up in Point Douglas too. Those areas can still be extremely rough though, especially at night, because of our poverty problem. Same with the North End. Some progress was being made to address the problems but then we elected Sam Katz and that all fell apart.

It's not that cold, especially this year. Buy some winter-wear though...it ain't Vancouver either.

The floods aren't that bad most years, at least in Winnipeg, because we are protected by the Winnipeg Floodway.

There are mosquitoes. There is also something called DEET. There are also several builders in the city who specialise in screened in porches and gazebos.

Autumn here is usually really nice. The fields turn golden, the leaves turn red and yellow, it's usually reasonably warm, and the sun comes out.

We have one of the sunniest areas on the planet, here...even in winter.

   

Compared to everywhere in Ontario except Toronto Winterpeg has a great bus system, they actually run often enough and to most areas that you can get where you want to go without a car.

And umm, cold is highly relative. It is -11, with wind chill -20 there, I have seen it down to -45 before with the wind chill. So be forewarned, there are days that you will not want to leave your house for anything.

Coming from the Toronto area the biggest thing that I noticed was that everything was super sprawled out. You have to take a bus or car to get pretty much anywhere. My bf lives right near the university and there are some shops there, but still, everything is so spaced out. I found it really strange.

And there is a Winnipeg accent. Not a strong one, but you might notice it.

Oh and summers there suck. I was only there the last two summers, but it never went over 25 degrees. I was super dissapointed, I am used to a lot more heat and humidity which I really like, but not everybody does so you might like it.

Oh, and they do this neat thing with the traffic lights at night. On the mor major roads you get a flashing yellow almost all the way through and then on the side roads that connect to it you get a flashing red at night. This is so that the traffic can move better at night and you dont have to stop when nobody is there. I dont know if they do this in Vancouver, but they dont in Toronto. It is very handy. But be forewarned, some people will go rather fast down those roads since they know they dont have to stop.

Oh, and one more thing I found odd there. Everybody actually goes the speed limit. In Ontario, if it says 60, you can easily go 70 and nobody cares, and on the highway it says 100, 120, and no problems, 140 even and you are still being passed by some people. But in Winnipeg, you only speed at night it seems. I questioned as to why this is, apparently they have a lot of photo radar at intersections. So be careful.

I am also goign to be moving up there permanently., but after you do, next Decvember/January.

   

You should have stayed more than two summers, Zoraja. Usually we get some hot weather and lots of sun...more sun than Toronto, but without so much humidity.

   

Dont worry I will be livin gthere for half of the coming summer, and then permanently from next January on.

   

Cool. It really is my favourite city in Canada. I just wish we had a mayor with a working brain so we can make it better.

I hope this summer is back to normal. I never even planted a garden last year because it was too wet. The year before that I planted one but nothing grew. Even my Saskatoons died. All I really did for the last couple of years was mow weeds in ankle-deep water. I've been here for 20 years though, and that definitely isn't normal.

   

lol that sucks

Ill be living in an apt probably though so I doubt I will have a garden of any sort.

   

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