Assiniboia
Assiniboia refers to a number of different locations and administrative jurisdictions in Canada. The name is taken from the
Assiniboine First Nation.
It was the name of the proposed
Métis province in
Canada, notably during the
Red River Rebellion. Assiniboia was to have stretched from near the
Red River to the
Canadian Rockies. This was unacceptable to the eastern Canadians, who were seeking to expand onto the then prime farmland in the west.
District of Assiniboia
The District of Assiniboia was later created (1882) as a regional administrative district of
Canada's
North-West Territories. Most of it was absorbed into the Province of
Saskatchewan in
1905, except for the westernmost quarter, which became part of
Alberta.
The territorial capital of
Regina was located in Assiniboia and, on the formation of the province of Saskatchewan in 1905, became the capital of the province. Its location was chosen by
Edgar Dewdney, the territorial Lieutenant-Governor. Dewdney had reserved for himself substantial land adjacent to the Canadian Pacific Railway line on the site of what became the town, and thereby considerably enriched himself. This was the occasion of a considerable scandal in the early days of the Territories.
The District of Assiniboia survived in its original geographical configuration as the Anglican
Diocese of Qu'Appelle until the 1970s when the portion of the Diocese (and former District of Assiniboia) lying within the province of Alberta was ceded to the Diocese of Calgary.
Assiniboia is also a town in south central
Saskatchewan.
Assiniboia is the name of a current provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of
Manitoba. For information on this district, see
Assiniboia (Manitoba riding). The Assiniboine River runs through Manitoba.
Today it's a suburb with subdivisions known as Crestview, Westwood, and St. Charles.
Mount Assiniboine is in the Canadian Rockies.
