Manitoba is a prairie province (2006 pop 1,133,510), situated near the geographical center of Canada, with an area of 649,947 sq km. In 2006, 167,175 people in the province claimed Ukrainian ancestry. Of these, 47,730 had a "single", Ukrainian-only origin, while 119,440 claimed a "multiple" (Ukrainian and other) origin. They represented approximately 15 percent of the total Ukrainian-Canadian population. A total of 26,540 of them claimed Ukrainian as a mother tongue. The capital of and largest city in Manitoba is Winnipeg, which has by far the province's largest Ukrainian population (110,335, of whom 30,090 are of single and 80,245 of multiple origin).

Formed in 1870, the province experienced large-scale colonization after 1890 when thousands of agriculturalists settled its virgin lands. Between 1870 and 1901 the population grew from 20,000 to 255,000. The first Ukrainian rural settlements were established in 1896 by immigrants from Galicia and Bukovyna at Stuartburn, south of Winnipeg, and at Lake Dauphin (Terebowla), in the northwest. By 1914 a network of Ukrainian homesteads and rural trade centers or railway towns could be found stretching from the American border in the southeast (Senkiw, Zhoda, Sarto, Vita [formerly Shevchenko], Tolstoi, Caliento, Sirko, Rosa) to the peripheries of Winnipeg (Brooklands, Gonor), in the Interlake region (Komarno, Ethelbert, Zbaraz), and from Sandy Lake to Swan River (Halicz, Ukraina, Zoria) in the northwest. A substantial amount of the land settled by Ukrainians in Manitoba, particularly in the southeast and Interlake area was of substandard quality, and, consequently, economic progress was impeded over time.

Manitoba was easily the most significant Canadian province in terms of Ukrainian community life until at least the Second World War. The province had the largest portion of the Ukrainian population in Canada - approx. 42 percent in the 1911 and 1921, 33 percent in 1931, and 30 percent in 1941 - and Winnipeg, with a Ukrainian population several times greater than that of any other urban center in Canada, clearly dominated the press and organizational life.

Winnipeg serves as the spiritual and administrative center of both the Ukrainian Catholic church of Canada and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC). The Ukrainian Catholic bishops or archbishops of Winnipeg have included Nykyta Budka (1912-28), Basil (Vasyl) Ladyka (1929-56), Maxim (Maksym) Hermaniuk (1956-92), and Michael Bzdel (1992). In 2001 there were 29,740 Ukrainian Catholics in Manitoba. The first primate of the UOCC, loan Teodorvych (1924-47) resided in Philadelphia rather than Winnipeg, and most of the church's affairs were handled by its consistory. The subsequent UOCC metropolitans, including Mystyslav Skrypnyk (1947-50), Ivan Ohiienko (llarion, 1951-72), Andrei Metiuk (1975-85), and Wasyl Fedak (1985-2005), have all resided in Winnipeg. There were 4,640 adherents of Ukrainian Orthodoxy in the province in 2001.

Manitoba's Ukrainians quickly entered the political arena and by 1910 had been absorbed into the Conservative party machine of Premier R. Roblin at the provincial level (until the party's downfall in 1915). The first reeve elected was I. Storosczuk, in Stuartburn (1908); the first alderman was Theodore Stefanyk, in Winnipeg (1911); and the first member of the legislative assembly (MLA) was Taras Ferley, in the Gimli electoral district (Independent, 1915). By 1939 a total of 10 Ukrainian MLAs had been elected, all from outside Winnipeg. In 1950 Nicholas Bachynsky became the speaker of the assembly, in 1953 John Solomon became deputy speaker, and in 1955 Michael Hryhorczuk was appointed the first Manitoba cabinet minister of Ukrainian origin. That same year William Wall (Wolokhatiuk, a Liberal) became the first Ukrainian-Canadian senator, serving until his death in 1962. Paul Yuzyk, a Progressive Conservative, then served as a Manitoba senator from 1963 to 1986. Ukrainians achieved a high profile in the New Democratic Party (NDP) administrations of the 1970s and 1980s, with cabinet ministers such as Samuel Uskiw, Bill Uruski, and William Parasiuk. The cabinets of Premier Gary Filmon (1988-99), himself of mixed Polish-Ukrainian background, included four people of Ukrainian origin. Likewise, the NDP cabinets of Gary Doer (1999) have included four Ukrainians. Municipally Ukrainians have routinely been elected in Manitoba, with Stephen Juba's long tenure as Winnipeg mayor being a notable highlight.

Ukrainian-English bilingual schools were established in more than 100 Manitoba localities early in the century. Teachers for them were trained at the Ruthenian Training School in Brandon, and many of them went on to become community leaders throughout western Canada. The bilingual schools were forcibly abolished in 1916, ostensibly in the course of "educational reform". They returned to the province only in 1979 (after enabling legislation was passed in 1978) and have been promoted by the Manitoba Parents for Education since 1980. Bilingual schools are located in Winnipeg, Oakbank, East Selkirk, and Dauphin. To preserve their culture and language, Ukrainians have maintained their own privately funded evening and Saturday schools. In 1962 Ukrainian was introduced into the province’s high schools as a language of study. The University of Manitoba (U of M) first introduced Ukrainian courses in 1949, and over time their scope has increased. In 1964 Saint Andrew's College, the Ukrainian Orthodox seminary established in Winnipeg in 1932, moved to a site at the U of M campus. In 1981 the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies was organized to deal with the humanities courses of the college.

Creative Manitoba talents of Ukrainian origin include or have included writers Honore Ewach, Maara Haas, and Mykyta Mandryka; playwrights Dmytro Hunkevych, Myroslav Irchan (also renown as a prose writer), Semen Kovbel, Oleksander Luhovy, and Pylyp Ostapchuk (pseu: Pylypenko); musical figures such as conductor Yevhen Turula, Oleksander Koshets, and Walter Klymkiw, violinist Donna Grescoe, musicologist Pavlo Macenko,  singer-actress Joan Karasevich, and singer-arranger Alexis Kochan; artists Roman Koval, Yakiv Maidanyk, Leonid Molodozhanyn (Leo Mol), and Don Proch; and filmmaker-photographer John Paskievich.

Winnipeg

Winnipeg, which is the capital of and the largest city (2006 pop. 694,668) in Manitoba, is situated at the confluence of the Red River and Assiniboine River. After the Canadian Pacific Railway reached it in 1885, it became the central railway and immigration dispersal point through which European immigrants passed en route to settling in western Canada.

In 2006 Winnipeg had a Ukrainian population of 110,335, of which 30,090 was of single (Ukrainian only) origin and 80,240 of multiple (Ukrainian and other) origin. Among them were 1,510 immigrants from Ukraine who had arrived in the city since 1991. A total of 2,275 people claimed a Ukrainian home language use even though in 2001 there were 15,315 people with a Ukrainian mother tongue. Earlier official numbers for the Ukrainian population are as follow: 3,600 in 1911 to7,000 in 1921, 21,459 in 1931 (the first year that the census accurately dealt with Ukrainian population figures), 28,162 in 1941, 41,997 in 1951, 53,918 in 1961, 64,305 in 1971, 79,350 in 1981, 98,330 in 1991, and 102,635 in 2001.

Winnipeg emerged quickly as the largest centre of urban Ukrainian population in Canada. Its railway yards and shops, factories, agricultural service sector, and bourgeoning infrastructure development offered the possibility of jobs for unskilled laborers. Moreover, it was the main transit point for early Ukrainian immigrants planning to settle on Prairie lands. A fair number of these decided not to continue and stayed on in Winnipeg. Until the Second World War, its Ukrainian population was several times that of any other urban centre in Canada.

The Ukrainian presence in Winnipeg was initially concentrated almost exclusively in the city's multiethnic and working-class districts: the much-storied North End, Point Douglas, and Brooklands. Over time there has been a major exodus of Ukrainians from these areasto other parts of the city.

Winnipeg was the main center of Ukrainian life in Canada before the Second World War. It had the first newspapers: the Liberal Kanadiis'kyi farmer (est. 1903), the Protestant Ranok (1905), the Socialist Robochyi narod (1909), the pro-Communist Ukrai'ns'ki robitnychi visty (1919), the Orthodox Ukrai'ns'kyi holos (1910), and the Catholic Kanadiis'kyi rusyn (1911). The first Ukrainian urban cultural society in Canada, the Shevchenko Reading Association, was formed in Winnipeg in 1899. Equally important were several community organizations which developed varying degrees of national status: the Ukrainian National Home, Ukrainian Canadian Citizens' League, Ukrainian National Committee, Ukrainian Central Committee and Ukrainian Labour-Farmer Temple Association. The coordinating body of the majority of organized Ukrainians, the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (now Congress), was formed in 1940 in the city, its headquarters since then. The city is also home to the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre "Oseredok."

Winnipeg's pre-eminent position in Ukrainian-Canadian organizational life for many decades reflected the fact of its demographic superiority. This situation changed considerably after the Second World War, and by 1971 both Edmonton and Toronto had Ukrainian populations roughly equal in number and influence to Winnipeg's.

Although largely unskilled and frequently discriminated against, the city's Ukrainians had made respectable advances by 1939 in the retail trade, the service industry, manufacturing, transportation, and the professions, especially education and law. In 1943 the Ukrainian Professional and Businessmen's Club was organized.

Winnipeg is and has always been the spiritual and administrative centre for both the Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches of Canada (the former currently headed by Lawrence Huculak, the latter by John Stinka.

The first Ukrainian alderman (Theodore Stefanyk) was elected in 1911, and the first city-based Ukrainian members of the provincial legislature (William Kardash and Stephen Krawchyk) in 1941. Among the city politicians of Ukrainian ancestry, the best known was undoubtedly Mayor Stephen Juba (1956-77), who in 1973 twinned Winnipeg with the city of Lviv.

The cultural life of Ukrainians in Winnipeg has and continues to be very dynamic. Among the city's many talents past and present are the writers Honore Ewach, Maara Haas and William Paluk; the playwrights Myroslav Irchan, Semen Kowbel, Oleksander Luhovy, Pylyp Ostapchuk, and Danny Schur (the latter with musical theatre); the performers Mimi Kuzyk, Ed Evanko, Joan Karasevych, and Juliette (Julia Sysak); the musicians Yevhen Turula, Oleksander Koshetz, Walter Klymkiw, Donna Grescoe, Paul Macenko, and Alexis Kochan; the artists Roman Kowal, Yakiv Maidanyk, Leo Mol, and Dan Proch; and the photographer-filmmaker John Paskievich.

The city boasts a monument to Taras Shevchenko on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature, a monument to community victims of the Great Famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine on the grounds of city hall, the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, and 15 Ukrainian Catholic and 6 Ukrainian Orthodox churches. Since 1979 a Ukrainian-English bilingual program has been offered in a number of Winnipeg schools. Ukrainian language and literature are taught at the University of Manitoba. The University is also home to the Orthodox theological school St. Andrew's College, the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies, the Archives of the Ukrainian Canadian Experience and the Slavic Collection (with major Ukrainian holdings) at the Elizabeth Dafoe Library.