"I don't say that we
Manitobans are more steadfast than other Canadians. It's just
that they're not tested so often."
Duff Roblin, premier of Manitoba
from 1958 to 1967, praising the fighting spirit of Manitobans
during the 1997 flood
"It's no mystery why
farmers like to grow crops in the Red River valley. There's deep,
fertile soil, abundant rainfall, flat land and no stones. There's
floods, too, but the farmers are used to battling them."
Don Flaten, director of the School
of Agriculture, University of Manitoba
"We're not that upset.
We've been through it before."
Kelly Houle, on moving back to the
family farm near Letellier, Man., tackling flood damage, and
looking forward to spring planting
"The enemy was the Red
River. And the enemy did not sleep. It was relentless."
Major Doug Martin, third-generation
Canadian Armed Forces flood fighter. His grandfather fought the
1950 Winnipeg flood, his father battled the Red in the 1960s
"The waters continue
to fall regularly at the rate of one foot in twenty-four hours
... Crops appear above ground the third day after being planted,
which is no doubt owing to the moisture of the ground ... Clouds
of mosquitoes as usual."
July 4, 1826, journal entry
of Francis Heron of the Hudson's Bay Company, Red River Settlement,
following one of Manitoba's most severe floods
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