Another of Canada's prairies provinces, Manitoba is probably from a Cree name meaning 'the place where the spirit (manitou) speaks.' The designer of this tartan was Hugh Kirkwood Rankine who was born in Winnipeg of Scottish parents. It's said that during a leave in Scotland during World War II, he became interested in tartan and on his return learned how to weave and in time produced this 'history in cloth' which was given Royal Assent in 1962. The red squares represent the Red River Settlement; the green squares signify the natural resources of the province; the azure blue squares represent Lord Selkirk, the founder of the Red River Settlement and the dark green lines are for Manitoba's multi cultural population.