Gotta tell y'all that I work for the province and am really familiar with land. What Tracy was referring to is called the principal meridian, not to be confused with the prime meridian which is in England.
The principal meridian is the center of Manitoba, which also happens to be the centre of Canada. There is actually a monument ( stone cairn ) marking the site on the Trans Canada hwy, just west of Headingly. And if you're observant, you will notice that the intersecting roads to the TCH are, for example 2W, 3W, 4W. which means 2 miles west of the pm, 3 miles west of the pm. The same thing goes for east of the PM except that the description read 2E, 3E, you get the drift. I could go on and on. but ( big yawn by y'all, ) it's only interesting for those who work with it or those that actually own the land.