Mennonite Heritage Village hosts Manitoba Day celebration

Spectators braved a cold wind to listen to former Olympian Michelle Sawatzky-Koop sing the Manitoba Song as the provincial flag was raised at the Mennonite Heritage Village on May 9, part of the museum’s Manitoba Day celebration.

Close to 600 visitors attended the event that saw heritage demonstrations, free Manitoba Day cake and welcoming speeches in what is the museum’s first event of the season.

Manitoba Day is officially on May 12, but a weekend celebration was planned to honour the 156 years Manitoba has been a province to allow more of the public to attend.

MHV executive director Robert Goertzen shared the importance of the day, which recognizes the moment the Manitoba Act received Royal Assent in 1870, making Manitoba the fifth province in Canada.

“I think the Manitoba Day celebration in many ways is a day to be hopeful and a day to be grateful,” he said.

Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen recalled his first federal provincial meeting when provincial representatives were seated, not east to west as he anticipated but in order of their provinces joining confederation.

“I was sitting between British Columbia and New Brunswick,” he said, adding that B.C. joined one year after Manitoba while New Brunswick joined one year prior.

He said while B.C. loved to talk about their weather and New Brunswick loved to talk about their standard of living, they all had connections to Manitoba, particularly the Southeast.

“There’s so much that connects us, so much that binds us as a country,” he said. “There’s so much that connects us from British Columbia to New Brunswick and every province in between and our northern parts of Canada as well, that we need to continue to ensure that we have those strong connections.”

Steinbach deputy mayor Michael Zwaagstra also welcomed attendees to the event, telling them how fantastic it is that our province has such diversity.

“When you look at our city, when you look at our community, we have people who can trace their ancestry back to the founding of Manitoba and for our Indigenous people of course much further than that,” he said. “But we also have people here and perhaps even in this room, who’ve come here much more recently, perhaps they’re first generation, maybe (they) have come here in the last few years.”

“And whether you’ve been here forever, or whether you’ve just arrived, you’re all equally welcome here in Manitoba and also here in the City of Steinbach,” he said.