[3] The ward is represented by Matt Allard, a member of Winnipeg City Council, and also corresponds to the neighbourhood clusters of St. Boniface East and West.

With the founding of a Roman Catholic mission in 1818, St. Boniface began its role in Canadian religious, political and cultural history: as mother parish for many French settlements in Western Canada; as the birthplace of Louis Riel and fellow Métis who struggled to obtain favourable terms for Manitoba's entry into Confederation; and as a focus of resistance to controversial 1890 legislation to alter Manitoba's school system and abolish French as an official language in the province (see Manitoba Schools Question).

French-speaking religious orders, including the Sisters of Charity of Montreal (better known as the Grey Nuns), who arrived in 1844, founded the early educational, cultural and social-service institutions, such as St. Boniface Hospital, the first in Western Canada.

The 165-acre (67 ha)[5] Union Stockyards, developed 1912–13, became the largest livestock exchange in Canada and a centre of the meat-packing and -processing industry.

[10] It also includes the Canadian National Railway's Symington Yards, a major rail-handling facility; and the Union Stockyards, which were once the largest of their kind in Canada.

[14] The area also hosts the Centre culturel franco-manitobain (CCFM; the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre), which features an art gallery, theatres, meeting rooms, and a community radio station;[15] Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum, a local museum dedicated to Franco-Manitoban culture and history;[16] and Le Cercle Molière, a French-language theatre group and Canada's oldest theatre company.

[18] The area features such landmarks as the Boulevard Provencher,[b] Esplanade Riel, Fort Gibraltar, Lagimodière-Gaboury Park, the Provencher Bridge, the Royal Canadian Mint, St. Boniface Cathedral (including the grave of Louis Riel in its churchyard),[11] St. Boniface Hospital, and the Université de Saint-Boniface.

The House of Archbishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché, which is now used for administrative purposes by the Archdiocese of St. Boniface, is one of the oldest stone buildings in western Canada.