Saint-Boniface, shown here in 1880, remains for many the heart of the French-speaking minority of Western Canada. It was the Mother Church for Catholics in the West. The school opened by Father Provencher in 1818 grew into St. Boniface College, a collÅge classique which educated the Älite of French-speaking society for decades. The Grey Nuns founded the first of many hospitals in Western Canada here in 1871. Le MÄtis, a weekly, established the same year, was followed by a succession of French weeklies. Lying as it does across the Red River from Winnipeg, Saint-Boniface became the focus of the francophone group. This bird's-eye view shows the cathedral built by Archbishop TachÄ (4), his bishopric (5), the CollÅge de Saint-Boniface (rear right), a school (6), a number of business establishments, and the terminus of the Canadian Pacific's Pembina branch. A bridge across the Red was completed a few years later.
