Overview

The North End is a large area located to the North and Northwest of Downtown Winnipeg

Downtown Winnipeg

Downtown Winnipeg is centred around Portage Avenue and Main Street, and is bounded by the Assiniboine River on the south, Colony and Balmoral Streets on the west, Notre Dame Avenue, Princess Street, and Logan Avenue on the north, and the Red River on the east. It includes the Exchange District,...

. It is bordered by the Red River

Red River of the North

The Red River is a North American river. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States, it flows northward through the Red River Valley and forms the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota before continuing into Manitoba, Canada...

 on the east, the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

 mainline on the south, the City of Winnipeg boundary (Brookside Boulevard) on the west and Jefferson Avenue, Keewatin Street, Carruthers Avenue, McGregor Street and the lane between McAdam and Smithfield Avenues on the north. It is the northern section of the City of Winnipeg as it existed prior to Unicity

Unicity

The term Unicity refers to reforms in the structure of the metropolitan government of Winnipeg in 1972. Unicity, an ambitious experiment in local government reform, established the City of Winnipeg as one unified city; until that point, the greater Winnipeg area had been composed of several...

 in 1972. Winnipeg's northern suburbs such as West Kildonan

West Kildonan

West Kildonan is a residential suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba, lying on the west side of the Red River, and immediately north of the old City of Winnipeg in the north-central part of the city...

 and Old Kildonan

Old Kildonan

Old Kildonan is a city ward of Winnipeg, Manitoba, represented by a member of Winnipeg City Council. Before the City of Winnipeg Act of 1972, it was an independent rural municipality...

 are not considered part of the North End. The mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway and its Winnipeg Yards, which are one of the largest railway yards in the world, act as a physical barrier between the North End and the rest of Winnipeg. This has resulted in the North End remaining a very distinct and unique part of Winnipeg.

The areas to the east of McPhillips Street are considered the Old North End, and were developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century, while the areas to the west were generally developed in the 1940's and later. The area is primarily residential,though there is some light industrial development in Inkster Industrial Park and adjacent to Oak Point Highway and Brookside Boulevard.

Demographics

The area has always been very ethnically diverse. Historically it was home to large German, Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish communities in addition to the population with British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

 origins, though all of these groups are much less predominant now. Visible minorities comprise 29.0% of the total population and Aboriginal peoples 22.9%. The 2006 Census population was 58,660. (Source: City of Winnipeg Neighbourhood Cluster Profiles).

History

The area was originally a part of the Parish of St. John. Gradually the boundary of the City of Winnipeg was extended north and parts of the North End today are in the Parish of Kildonan. It is one of the oldest settled parts of Winnipeg. It was the location of Fort Douglas

Fort Douglas (Canada)

Fort Douglas was a fort of the Hudson's Bay Company that was built by Scottish and Irish settlers in 1812 in what is today Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was in the immediate vicinity of the North West Company establishment, Fort Gibraltar...

, built by the Selkirk settlers in 1812. Urban development of the area as a working class residential area began in the 1880s. Streetcar service commenced in 1892, although early patrons were forced to walk across the railway tracks for transportation to Downtown Winnipeg until completion of the Main Street underpass in 1904. By the 1910s the area was heavily developed and had a large population of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. The area was known for its high incidences of extreme poverty and relatively high prevalence of diseases such as typhoid fever

Typhoid fever

Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...

 and cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

. In the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, the North End, as a working class area, was decidedly pro-strike.

The area has long been acknowledged as the most socially deprived part of the city of Winnipeg. Parts of the area, especially east of McPhillips Street and south of Mountain Avenue are marked by high drug use and its associated crime and gang violence. Since the 1980s, attempts to revitalize parts of the North End have been made with limited success. Serious concerns include crime, poverty and the deteriorating housing stock in the older parts of the area.

The North End was considered Ward Three in the Old City of Winnipeg and historically voted for left of centre parties. It was represented by Communist Party of Canada

Communist Party of Canada

The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...

 aldermen (Jacob Penner

Jacob Penner

Jacob Penner was a popular socialist politician in Canada. Penner was born and raised in a Mennonite family in Russia and emigrated to Winnipeg in 1904. In 1908, he met his wife Rose Shapack, a Jewish Russian immigrant, during an address by Emma Goldman at the Winnipeg Radical Club...

 and Joseph Zuken

Joseph Zuken

Joseph Zuken was a popular Communist politician in Winnipeg and the longest serving elected Communist party politician in North America....

) from 1933 to 1983. The area also elected communists James Litterick

James Litterick

James Litterick was a politician in Manitoba, Canada, and was the first member of the Communist Party of Canada to be elected to that province's legislature....

 and W.A. Kardash to the Manitoba Legislative Assembly. From the 1990's until recently, the area has tended to support the New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

 in Federal elections.

Famous North-Enders

Actor Monty Hall

Monty Hall

Monte Halperin, OC, OM , better known by the stage name Monty Hall, is a Canadian-born MC, producer, actor, singer and sportscaster, best known as host of the television game show Let's Make a Deal.-Early life:...

, comedian David Steinberg

David Steinberg

David Steinberg is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the best-known stand-up comics in the United States...

, journalist Larry Zolf

Larry Zolf

Larry Zolf was a Canadian journalist and commentator.Zolf was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He earned a B.A. from the University of Winnipeg, and then received a Masters degree in Canadian history from the University of Toronto. In 1962, he joined the CBC...

, politician Lloyd Axworthy

Lloyd Axworthy

Lloyd Norman Axworthy, PC, OC, OM is a prominent Canadian politician, statesman and University President from Manitoba. He is best known for having served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien...

, musician Burton Cummings

Burton Cummings

Burton L. Cummings, OC, OM is a Canadian musician and songwriter.He was the lead singer and frequent keyboardist for the Canadian rock band The Guess Who...

 of the Guess Who

Guess Who

Guess Who may refer to:*The Guess Who, a rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada*Guess Who is a 1972 album by B.B. King*Guess Who , a Romanian hip hop artist*Guess Who?, a 1980s guessing game made popular by the Milton Bradley Company...

 and scientist Louis Slotin

Louis Slotin

Louis Alexander Slotin was a Canadian physicist and chemist who took part in the Manhattan Project, the secret US program during World War II that developed the atomic bomb....

.

The Genie Award

Genie Award

Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...

 winning documentary Ted Baryluk's Grocery

Ted Baryluk's Grocery

Ted Baryluk's Grocery is a 1982 short documentary about Ukrainian-Canadian Ted Baryluk's grocery store in Winnipeg's North End. Co-directed by John Paskievich and Michael Mirus and produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the film consists of Baryluk talking about his store, his customers and...

was filmed in the area.

External links

• Photographic examples of the problems in North End