This little film by myself and co-director Beth Azore for MTS WINNIPEG ON DEMAND takes us on a ride back to the late 1800s. Winnipeg was just a blip when the first horse pulled street car appeared. Soon enough Winnipeg was Canada’s third largest city. The electric powered streetcars replaced the horses and decades of streetcar service to the city came to pass.

It was a pitch by General Motors and Goodyear tires that brought diesel buses to this and other cities. The challenges of Winnipeg winters, up-keep of an aging streetcar system and distant suburb commuters drove the decision to scrap Winnipeg streetcar service entirely.

Winnipeg owes much to its commuter beginnings. The street cars played a significant role in the creation of Winnipeg city.  From as far back as 1887 Winnipeg has been served by some form of commercial transit commuter service.  By 1900, the Winnipeg Electric Co. was a supplier of electric power, a land developer and operated Winnipeg’s streetcar services.

Between 1900 and 1952, the Winnipeg Electric Company had been responsible for developing many of Winnipeg’s neighboring municipalities, such as St. James and many neighborhoods in the cities North End.  They had operated the largest network of electric streetcars on the Canadian Prairies.  They also had the longest streetcar to ever be in operation in Canada. There were electric street car lines reaching out to distant communities such as Headingley, Stonewall and Selkirk, Manitoba.

The Winnipeg Electric Co. was sold to the province in 1952 and out of this sale Manitoba Hydro was born and the streetcar & bus service became Winnipeg Transit operated by Winnipeg city. Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Credit Union was born out of the back Winnipeg Transit’s mechanical garage on Assiniboine Avenue, just down from present day Bonney Castle Park.

This film is filled with many photos of early Winnipeg, its streetcars, buses and pedestrians from the turn of the century to present day.