The Marlborough Hotel was one of the best places we stayed at on our whole journey. We were very happy with the smooth handling of our lost hard drive case and calling it “the silver box” was very comprehensible to us – and also funny. We didn’t want this to sound negative.

We didn’t talk to many Indians but most of them scrounged for some change (in front of the hotel) and were not very friendly. This was our experience in one and a half days.

Your comment is very informative, it adds perfectly to the post. We very much appreciate any local’s point of view here. Thank you very much!

My name is Michael Kerr, I am a Designer and Application Developer. I was born and raised in Winnipeg, lived and worked in Vancouver and now live in Montreal. My son Cory who has just started college lives in Winnipeg with his Mother and works at the Marlborough Inn where you left your “silver box” It’s likely that he made your breakfast that day. You have to excuse the girls working cleaning your rooms there. They make very little money and the types of Mac Laptop toys you keep your music collection on are likely beyond their budgets and out of their sphere of knowledge, hence the “silver box”, obviously having less access to wealth has not damaged their character, your very lucky to have it back. I’m sure it was not sent back to you out of ignorance. Most of the world lives with less. Much of Canada is working class and poor despite our reputation as a comfortable country.

I have to point out some things to you about Winnipeg having grown up there. While there are a lot of Indians on the street very few are actually homeless. They drift up North and back from the reserves and live outside the boundaries of white society as they have there for thousands of years. Most have more money than the average home owning white person but they do often do not use banks, stay on the move and drink too much when they are in the city. The Indians in your photos may look rough to you but they are hardly poor or homeless. In fact they look like pretty regular people and not that bad off for Winnipeg Natives. Many make an excellent living up North in the winter or fishing in the summer and spend part of their time in the city. Most are excellent people, just like whites who are have a much more abundant homeless presence than the Indians in Winnipeg but in Vancouver around the downtown, Broadway and Main street and Hastings areas of those cities. Most Indians communicate across vast distances up North via skype, msn or ICQ, where they live in huge communities in magnificent places with little or only seasonal road access. They use large networks of tribal connections and families to move in and out of the city. They do not want to look like or live like you and I. One of the community leaders described the urban natives in Winnipeg as being like forest animals in the city. They are out of their element there. If they can be called homeless it is because we have destroyed and stolen their home. Assimilation is not their goal. Self government is what they are fighting for and they are making progress.

While Winnipeg is remote and seems to have no wealth it has a very active arts and music community. The city has produced some great musicians. Chantal Kreviazuk ( Under These Rocks and Stones), The Wyrd Sisters, The Guess Who ( American Woman, No Time, Share the Land, These Eyes), The Crash Test Dummies( The Superman Song, God Shuffled His Feet), Bachman Turner Overdrive ( Elvis’ favorite song “Taken Care of Business”), Biff Naked ( who I used to play shows with when I was younger), Loreena McKennitt (amazing songwriter), The void ( my own band when I was younger ;) ), Holly McNarland ( Numb, Sour Pie ), The Welfare Starlets ( worth a look ), If you don’t know these artists you are missing some huge American pop music history :) look them up online or grab them on Limewire. Not that they will be your cup of tea but they come out of Winnipeg poor art culture which is a very cool scene if your in it.

I hated living in Winnipeg and love Montreal and Vancouver but I hate to see Winnipeg being painted as a “not worth noticing” sideshow to the rest of the country. It has an amazing history and its people are rough and tough and nothing like the rest of Canada. It’s the real deal like it or not :) I love you guys and your travels as I said. I hope I haven’t offended you with my comment. I hope there are more journeys to come for you two. I’ll be reading about them.