The Prairie Region of Canada

Political Divisions

The Prairie Region

of Canada

The prairie region has a wide range of diversity in terms of political views. The Conservative Party of Canada has widespread support throughout the region while The New Democratic Party holds seats at the provincial level in all three provinces. The NDP forms the government in two of these provinces and also holds seats at the federal level in Alberta and Manitoba. The Liberal Party of Canada holds federal seats in urban areas of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan while also holding provincial seats in Alberta and Manitoba.

Animals and Environmental

Pollution

Immigration and Ethnic Composition

In 1867 foreign populations began to settle in the prairies because of the intensive advertising and international immigration agencies. In the 1880's, over 15000 people came from China and America to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway. The prairies were a safe place to resettle for these people.This immigration diversified the land by building a solid agricultural recourse-based economy and establishing a variety of unique cultures that have made a lasting mark on the region. In recent years the amount of immigrants settling in the three prairie provinces rose from 9% in 1999 to 19% in 2009. Manitoba received 5.4% of immigrants in 2009, Saskatchewan 2.7%, and Alberta 10.7%. The prairie regions two official languages are French and English.

The prairie region faces many challenges in terms of pollution. Adding more roads and buildings to our cities causes us to lose some of our prairies and areas of vegetation. This reduces the environments ability to naturally filter out air pollutants to help maintain the healthy population. The pollution and change in natural habitat has also caused the animal population in the prairies to diminish. However, some remain like the black bear, the coyote, the red fox, the whitetail deer, the moose, the black tailed prairie dog, the beaver, the red tailed hawk, etc.

The Natural

Environment

and Agriculture

The prairies are a flat, fertile, area of land that cover the south of the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. 95% of the prairie region is farmland as it is dominated by grasses and perfect for growing grains like wheat, rye, and oats. The vegetation includes trees such as the white spruce, the black spruce, the water birch, etc. and other greenery like spear grass and sagebrush.

Population and Demographic Trends

The overall population in the prairies is 3.8 million people. Because of the region’s history with settlement and farming, the population is more evenly distributed than anywhere else in Canada. Although the majority of the prairie region is farmland, only about 10% of the population consists of farmers while 80% live in urban areas. From 2011 to 2014, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta had the highest population growth out of all the provinces in Canada and also had a faster population growth than the whole country. The median age in 2011 for the three prairie provinces was 38.2 in Saskatchewan, 38.4 in Manitoba, and 36.5 in Alberta.