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 prime farmland in the west.

The District of Assiniboia was later created (1882) as a regional administrative district of Canada's Northwest 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 insalubrious location -- on featureless and treeless plain without a local water supply other than a creek carrying spring runoff -- was chosen by Edgar Dewdney, the territorial Lieutenant-Governor, who had managed to reserve substantial land adjacent to the Candian Pacific Railway line on the site of what became the town.

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. Mount Assiniboine is in the Canadian Rockies and the Assiniboine River runs through Manitoba.

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).