Creation of the province of Manitoba (1870)

Parliament passed the Manitoba Act in 1870, providing for the creation of the province and its union with Canada on 15 July. Through this act the Canadian government responded to one of the demands made by the provisional government formed during the Red River rebellion of 1869–70: the province would comprise only the Red River settlement and would not control its public lands and resources, but 1,400,000 acres in the northwest were set aside for the Métis as a compromise. The province would be officially bilingual, with a system of Catholic and Protestant public schools.