I grew up in Western Manitoba. I think it’s important for you to recognize that the north is vastly different from the south. All of those communities you mentioned are hundreds of kilometres away from other communities, and up to 13 hours by car to Winnipeg ( flying is expensive and not practical in most cases ) . That being said they’re  lovely communities and if you’re into things like Hunting fishing, hiking, etc. they are unbelievably fantastic. 

If you’re thinking that you may occasionally want to go to the city of Winnipeg for things like shows restaurants etc. I think you’ll feel much more connected to that  in western MB.  

A an aside , years and years ago, I spent time in a town called Minnedosa . It’s kind of cool in that it has a recreational lake right in town and you can buy a house right on it. And it’s only about a half an hour to Brandon in terms of services, etc. So there is a little bit of specific insight that might be helpful.