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Local: Winnipeg History - Post-War Years

The Second World War brought good times back to Winnipeg, with increased demand for agricultural and manufactured products and because of the importance of prairie towns to the Commonwealth Air Training Program, which trained fighter and bomber pilots from many British Commonwealth. The end of the war brought a second wave of immigrants, who settled mainly in the cities , including Winnipeg. Winnipeg grew quickly, benefiting from cheap Manitoba hydro-electric power and plentiful fresh water, and its location close to the geographical centre of North America.

In 1950, the Great Red River Flood caused 80,000 to be displaced while the surging Red River overflowed its banks. This caused the political impetus to build the great Spillway. This construction project moved 76 million cubic metres of earth along a 47 kilometre path, an amount greater than the St Lawrence Seaway or the Panama Canal. Ever since, Winnipeg has been safe (though not farmlands to the south) from the annual Red River Floods.

In 1972, the unified City of Winnipeg was created by amalgamating 13 municipalities, towns and cities: Since then the city has grown and matured. In 1967 and again in 1999, it hosted the Pan-American Games, the third largest athletic competition in the world. The North American Free Trade Agreement has also enabled Winnipeg's industries and consumers to benefit from a trade corridor between the city and Mexico, via several large US cities.