I have mentioned before that I am from Winnipeg, and even posted news stories about it in the past. Unless you have seen Guy Madden’s film ‘My Winnipeg’, though, I expect you will know little to nothing about it.

Nor should you.

In the last few days, however, a few publicity-type videos have appeared on friends’ facebook walls that I think are meant to convince the viewer that Winnipeg is a worthwhile place to visit/live/pay attention to.

But I am not convinced. Bearing in mind that I, myself, have not lived there for 25 years, and only last passed through 15 years ago, I would be interested to know what impression you come away with of the city after watching one or more of these videos.

If you get a moment, take a look and comment on your impression(s). I have nothing invested in your response other than to promise my own appraisal once a few of you have remarked.

[Sorry, it’s not youtube or vimeo, so you’ll have to click to link out. 🙁 ]

https://www.aol.com/video/view/try-not-to-fall-in-love-with-winnipeg-after-watching-this/57a9395076a6053a103255cd/

Everyone seems to move very slowly.

Is everyone a tyre fitter?

Is everyone a tyre fitter?

Not sure I get the reference… ❓

First impressions? Nothing outstanding about it as a City. So, it has a park, some skyscrapers, a river and a few hipster-types. Nothing about that grabbed me.

Personally, I’d have been more interested in a bit about it’s history and anything a bit more unique about it.

But have this one from me…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQhi9p9MWbw[/video]

Looks, er, flat. Like a Canadian Norwich?

Neil Young came from Winnipeg!

Looks quite nice, but I was born in Leicester….

Neil Young came from Winnipeg

He did. As did The Guess Who and the Crash Test Dummies.

Does it start with a treatment for “bacterial vaginosis” for everyone else – or just me? 😯

Esme – Member

Does it start with a treatment for “bacterial vaginosis” for everyone else – or just me?
Just you I think!! Straight into the video for me.

Anyway it looks nice enough but I’m sure with the right lighting and carefully chosen angles you could make anywhere look “nice enough”…….

OK maybe not Stoke on Trent, Crew or Slough

I’d have thought that the treatment would be effective for anyone.

Flatter than month old coke

McD’s ad for me.

It looks nicer than the city of my birth, Warrington. It looks a nice enough place but I can’t say the video moved me that much. I’m not sure some of the Winnipeggers would like Warrington.

It’s got an NHL team.
That’ll do for me.

+1 for it having an NHL team. Shame I support a different one. I also used to live in Warrington. Winnipeg looks nicer. So that’s something.

Looks a lot more interesting than Welwyn Garden City.

+1 for it having an NHL team. Shame I support a different one.

Me too. Flames. 🙄

My wife has been several times for work and hated it. Boring, cold( even the locals call it Winterpeg) and not much culture. Oh, and sorry but Neil Young only lived in Winnipeg after his parents split up. He’s from Toronto.

Me too. Flames.

Flames on a 9 game winning streak. I support Detroit, any win streak would be nice.

That video makes Winnipeg look a nice weekend break, I guess, but no more than other Canadian cities.

Having been there its a nice enough city but if I wasn’t there for the fact my girlfriend lived there, i wouldn’t bother.
Its too far out in the middle of nowhere to be a place to visit.
I was there in summer, didn’t experience the cold.. sounds grim.

The film didn’t inspire me to visit,it looks pretty & quiet and muddy.

Looks a lot more interesting than Welwyn Garden City.

At least there are some hills around Welwyn. 🙂

The boaty bit at the start looks nice. Other than that it appears to have the same and only virtue of all cities. It keeps millions of people out of the countryside. 🙂

Propagandhi. Love them. Great band.

I can’t watch the video on this connection, but I find it bizarre how North Americans can talk about cities the way they do, like they are some kind of special destination. Most of them are endless suburbs with a concrete jungle in the middle. Who the hell would want to be in that kind of environment? Perhaps someone who didn’t know any different.

That part of the world should be about endless praries and taiga forest, not bloody concrete tower blocks.

Imagine if a developer bought up the Serengetti, ploughed it all into farmland then built a load of drab bulidings in it with the odd park, and then expected you to come and visit.

Same here for me. That film gives the impression that it’s a typical faceless North American city desperately trying to be Portland.

Double post.

In spite of the fact that I am quite happy to have grown up where I grew up, the truth is that I agree with all of the comments so far.

Winnipeg is very much a provincial city with a provincial mindset, and you have confirmed what I always thought as a kid: it tries too hard to be a ‘destination’. To be honest, watching the video, I liked seeing some of the streets again, but I found the whole thing slightly cringeworthy.

In answer to your comments, molgrips, I think that cities in Western North America – carved as they were out of the landscape for the sake of trade and safety – very much see themselves as oases of identity in an otherwise overwhelming land. But you’re right: a place like Winnipeg should embrace its context, and not try to be, as Rotor Stern said, Portland.

In any case, here’s a bit of natural context for you:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYYTajLWWo8[/video]

Everywhere should embrace its context. I feel that North Americans often don’t do this. As Bill Bryson said, the concept of simply going out to walk in the countryside would be met with incomprehension in his native Iowa. People seem to go to ‘see’ tourist attractions in isolation, often, rather than experiencing an environment.

That’s why I thought Moab was so cool, because it was surrounded by landscape that you could get into and interact with on no specific basis. Although many people simply came to see the Arches and then buggered off again. ‘Gee look, there’s a hole in that rock’. Well, gee whizz, yes there is.

I think that cities in Western North America – carved as they were out of the landscape for the sake of trade and safety – very much see themselves as oases of identity

The search for identity seems to be a core theme in American society in general, I think (can’t say much about Canada, really).

Historically people left their identities behind when they migrated to America. You left your old nationality behind and became American. This was encouraged because America needed to create its own culture and identiy out of nothing, and pretty quickly too. (Except that’s not really how identity works, which seems to be why so many people today are revisiting their heritage and trying to become whatever nationality their ancestors were. “Hi, I’m from Chicago, I’m Irish” and so on).

I’ve noticed the attempt to create identity in lots of US cultural output. Watching for example Arrow (which is pretty naff to be fair) it’s consipicuous how much he keeps going on and on about his commitment to his city. But then, all superheroes do this, and so do cop shows and the like. it’s all about the *city* not the country or even state. And even in old musicals and movies it all happens in one city, like they’re really trying to create a sense of place which hasn’t really had time to develop as the cities and towns are really just infrastructure rapidly erected in the middle of a prarie. I think that’s the kind of thing expressed in the OP’s original video.

I think a lot of Americans wish they had the identity, history and context that they seem to see in European places or cities.

Interesting stuff.
Love to go.

The sense of being lost in the seemingly infinite you get from the scale of the geography in the States and Canada never gets old.

shermer75 – Member
Neil Young came from Winnipeg!

Anthony Burgess came from Harpurhey.
We should still nuke it ’till it glows.

The sense of being lost in the seemingly infinite you get from the scale of the geography in the States and Canada never gets old.

May I suggest camping on the national grasslands in the Dakotas? Pretty cool.

Looks quite nice, ‘nice’ being the over-riding feel for me, rather than exciting or vibrant.

The shots in the city reminded me of The Matrix, they took a modern city (Sydney) and scrubbed and scrubbed it to make it look all clean and neat – the shot of the guy kicking a skateboard up a back alley – does it always look that clean and litter free, not even a few leaves about? I doubt it. It’s trying to portray a city so safe and clean, my Mum would like to visit, but it removes the character.

As for tourism? It’s problem will always be the same, there is a finite amount of money and a finite amount of time people can use to ‘see the world’ – you have to be a pretty seasoned traveller to think “what shall I do with my 2 weeks this year? I’ve been to Paris, New York, LA, Sydney, London, Vancouver, Tokyo, I’ve seen the Great Barrier Reef, The Grand Canyon, The Louvre, Lake Como and C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate, what’s left? Winnipeg!