It’s mid-June in Thompson. We can be equanimous for at least a few short months about the weather. Not everything can be quantified by survey measure and when it comes to summer in Northern Manitoba, does it get any finer anywhere in Canada than this?

Hot sunshine, low humidity, cool nights still for sleeping after daytime blue skies and long, long hours of daylight. Now really, can anyone who has ever spent a summer in Ottawa’s oppressive heat brag about low humidity and cool nights for sleeping?

Astum Peymetawek (translated from Cree to English means "come and have fun") was the first big summer celebration in the then young town of Thompson in 1967, three years before the first Nickel Days in 1970. Now, with this year’s Nickel Days kicking off tomorrow, we expect sometime between Thursday and Sunday there will be some rain. Almost has to be. It is traditional after all for Nickel Days. But unless the weather forecasters were away off the mark when we penned this missive a few days ago, it doesn’t look like enough precipitation to dampen the spirits too much.

The four-day Nickel Days event, including the National King Miner Contest, both date back to July 1970, the year Thompson was elevated from town to city status, and being celebrated for the 41st time beginning tomorrow, including some partaking in the hospitality suite of libations from the two 16-inch tap-modified waterproof rubber mining boots, filled to the brim with an endless supply of the Nickel Days Corporation's famous "Nickel Belt" vodka, tequila, beer and champagne concoction.

The National King Miner Contest, with its 11 events, including stoper drilling, jackleg drilling, crib building, which many miners consider the most demanding event of the contest, log sawing, ladder climbing, slusher mucking, hand mucking, steel packing, muck machine mucking, pipefitting and nail driving, is organized and held under the auspices of United Steelworkers Local 6166 at Vale.

And while we’re on the topic of summer and all things good about the season, let’s spare a thought in the larger view for not just Thompson, but all of Manitoba.

The province, which is celebrating its 140th birthday this year with Manitoba Homecoming 2010 events, joined Confederation as the fifth province – appropriately enough smack in the middle of 10, time-wise, as well as geographically – on July 15, 1870.

The Manitoba Act, which created the Province of Manitoba, was passed by the Parliament of Canada, and received royal assent on May 12, 1870. The act was proclaimed on July 15, 1870. Manitoba’s official flag, the Red Ensign, bearing the provincial coat of arms, was given royal approval by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in October 1965, and officially dedicated and unfurled for the first time on May 12, 1966. In 1986, May 12 was designated as Manitoba Day.

Manitoba has been the home of some of the most important, often colourful and eclectic, and at times controversial who’s who of Canadian history.

Almost any such list would include Métis leader Louis Riel, considered by many to be the “Founding Father” of Manitoba; Nellie McClung, the controversial feminist author, social activist and politician; writers Gabrielle Roy and Margaret Laurence; J.S. Woodsworth, Methodist minister, community activist and Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) politician; Los Angeles-born Stanley Knowles, United Church minister, social gospel movement activist, CCF politician and parliamentarian; Progressive Conservative premier and senator Duff Roblin; former governor general and NDP premier Ed Schreyer; Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the United States and former NDP premier; newspaper editor John Wesley Dafoe; journalist E. Cora Hind; and Canwest’s Izzy Asper.

Also on many such lists would be Red Sucker Lake’s Elijah Harper, who served provincially as an NDP cabinet minister and later federally as a Liberal MP from Churchill riding, but who is best known for his opposition filibuster, holding an eagle feather, as he took his stand in the Manitoba legislature, refusing it unanimous consent to hold a vote on ratifying the proposed Meech Lake accord days before the three-year deadline expired in June 1990, signaled its death knell; former national chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations Ovide Mercredi, from Misipawistik Cree Nation in Grand Rapids, and Phil Fontaine from Sagkeeng First Nation at Fort Alexander; filmmaker Guy Maddin; spymaster Sir William Stephenson; cable TV pioneer and philanthropist Randall Moffat; and Olympic speed skater Cindy Klassen.

And that’s just the short list.

Of course, in addition, to the important and famous, there are also the quirky and unique things that make Manitoba, well, Manitoba.

Things like the nine “disorganized” municipalities of Armstrong; Birch River; Chatfield; Fisher Branch; Kreuzberg; Piney; Sprague; Stuartburn; and Woodlea, now absorbed into Rural Municipalities (RM’s).

When the Depression arrived in the 1930s, municipalities were faced with a sudden drop in tax receipts and many were forced to accept administration from the provincial government. Nine municipalities, located in the Interlake and southeast corner, allowed their government to lapse completely and have never reappeared in their old form. Even rarer than "ghost towns," these former municipalities are, in effect, "ghost" municipalities, notes the Manitoba Historical Society.

Or things like the “social.” A homegrown concept, the social is a fundraising event for pretty much any good cause (like a wedding where you may hardly know the bride or groom, that’s OK, it’s a community event, too) that’s a good excuse (not that Manitobans need one) for a party, typically held in a community centre or church hall. Expect to buy lots of raffle, 50-50 or silent auction tickets; dress to dance most of the night, either to a disc jockey, or live band. Kokanee and Budweiser will be the beers of choice; found with rye and coke at the bar, and a lunch of kielbasa, rye bread, Old Dutch barbecue potato chips, dill pickles and cheese will be on the back table to scarf down at the midnight buffet.