Where is the boundary between the eastern and western Prairies?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Andy6

You could just leave "north of 53" out of ROM, though. That's a distinct society of its own up there -- although it does produce things like nearly all the province's electricity and vast amounts of nickel, copper, etc., that I'm led to believe have some value.

We have 3.1% of Canada's mineral production, so there is some wealth but not what I'd regard as an abundant amount of it. It's not quite like Alberta producing nearly half of Canada's crude oil.

As for electricity, let's face it... the dams are paid for, and to the benefit of Southern Manitoba and more to the point, Winnipeg. (Just under a third of our hydro is exported.) Without Winnipeg, those dams probably wouldn't exist. Certainly not all of them.

[drew]

Originally Posted by Andy6

You could just leave "north of 53" out of ROM, though. That's a distinct society of its own up there -- although it does produce things like nearly all the province's electricity and vast amounts of nickel, copper, etc., that I'm led to believe have some value.

The last real bastion of northern ROM (or all of MB for that matter) that has any sizable mineral production - Thompson - is a community in decline both in population and economics from its heydays in the 70s and 80s. Which should tell you all you need to know about the value of resource extraction in this province.