Winnipeg doesn’t have an airport. Wait, what? We have a great modern airport called the James Richardson International Airport. This joke is a popular joke because Winnipeg does not have a lot going for it when you look at it from the outside. It’s a small city in the scheme of things, even the most expensive houses aren’t that expensive, and on the surface there is nothing to do here. Ultimate underdog.
But that makes Winnipeg great as well. Housing is generally affordable even if we need more low-income housing. There is lots to do here which has been highlighted by how many things have been cancelled or postponed this summer. We have great museums. We have lot’s of green spaces. We have a solid education system (that struggles with the amount of kids living in poverty or unideal home situations). Winnipeg is good.
Winnipeg is boring. We don’t have the same vibrant downtown that Montreal has or the same vibrant water front that Vancouver has. We have a lot of race issues here because of the systemic racism faced by Indigenous people. All that said, Winnipeg is an underdog because a city who peaked probably a century ago is still here. We’ve diversified our economy before the NHL returned. Winnipeg changed and is still changing. Winnipeg is an underdog city that has had to adapt and change to fit the world and yet it does do just that.
