• Ukraine mission beats new rules on immigration

  The province is leading a delegation to Kyiv, Ukraine, next month to drum up immigration one last time before the federal government narrows the door. The province is making the trip before the Harper government tightens English-language standards starting in July. The trip runs from June 7-11.

  View Full Column | 1:00 AM | 0

• Where there's a willow, there's a way

  GIMLI -- The lowly willow bush grows like a weed and has been of little use to people except as willow switches to keep children on the virtuous path. But conservation districts across Manitoba are having great results planting willow bushes for erosion control on our lakes and rivers.

  View Full Column | 05/12/2012 1:00 AM | 0

• Time capsule of fun for sale

  WINNIPEG BEACH -- The illusion behind the arcade, Playland, the longest-running business in Winnipeg Beach, is that time can actually stand still. So the arcade walls are plastered with iconic posters, everything from a psychedelic Bob Dylan to a Ghostbusters movie poster, from K.C. and the Sunshine Band to cheesecake posters of TV stars from the 1970s such as Adrienne Barbeau, the daughter in Maude. "Some people come in here just to look at the posters," said Tony Pimentel, who, along with wife, Rochelle Hykawy, owns Playland.

  View Full Column | 05/5/2012 1:00 AM | 0

• Retracing historic Mandan Trail

  COULTER -- Two centuries ago, while Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock was defending Canada from the United States in the War of 1812, a massacre of aboriginal people took place near Turtle Mountain. About 30 people were slain. It was aboriginal-versus-aboriginal violence, with Sioux, Hidatsa and Métis people perishing.

  View Full Column | 04/23/2012 1:00 AM | 0

• The fox and the town: Emerson mayor seeks to restore historic barn

  EMERSON -- You might say Emerson Mayor Wayne Arseny is crazy like a fox barn when it comes to heritage preservation. His latest project is restoring a century-old fox-fur barn in this border town steeped in history from its Fort Dufferin days.

  View Full Column | 04/9/2012 1:00 AM | 0

• Morden about to become a full-fledged city

  Manitoba will soon have its own Twin Cities. Morden is about to become the province's ninth city. It joins Winkler, about 10 kilometres down the road, which became a city in 2002.

  View Full Column | 04/2/2012 1:00 AM | 0

• Rescued concert hall going strong again

  VIRDEN -- Thirty years ago, Gladys Carefoot asked Randy Rostecki what he thought of the town's old concert hall, the historic Virden Auditorium that was filled with bird droppings, fallen plaster, glass from broken windows and had water damage from the collapsing roof. Rostecki was visiting on behalf of Manitoba Historical Resources but had earlier compiled an inventory of historic buildings across Western Canada for Parks Canada. Today, he is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of prairie architecture and is author of two books, including Armstrong's Point: A History.

  View Full Column | 02/27/2012 1:00 AM | 0

• Rural 'Toba gets an 'A'

  It was generally a good report card for rural Manitoba and one of the highlights of the 2011 census is Brandon. Brandon increased by 4,500 people, 11 per cent more than in 2006. (Winnipeg grew by five per cent.) It's extremely good considering western Manitoba keeps losing population to the large oil patches in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

  View Full Column | 02/11/2012 1:00 AM | 0

• Ministry washed out in fallout from flood

  Did the 2011 flood have anything to do with last month's gutting of Manitoba Water Stewardship? A Jan. 13 memo to staff announced Manitoba Water Stewardship is no more. Its environmental functions, such as water quality and fisheries, have been transferred to Manitoba Conservation. Its flood-fighting functions have moved to Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation (MIT).

  View Full Column | 02/4/2012 1:00 AM | 0

• ‘Spry old guy’ on the mark

  A SNOW Lake man who turns 92 on Feb. 5 has bagged a four-year-old bull moose. Ben Foord shot the bull moose from a distance of about 70 metres from his tree stand this hunting season. It was the first moose he and his sons had seen in two weeks of hunting.

  View Full Column | 12/26/2011 11:02 AM | 0

• Yule tale a lesson for boys who peek

  A Christmas horror story. That was the tale told beneath the snow-quilted rooftop and chimney-smoke tendrils of the Redekop household each Christmas.

  View Full Column | 12/19/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Open Road NOTEBOOK

  The council of the RM of Springfield, a fast-growing and fairly affluent community, particularly the community of Oakbank, has been dysfunctional since 2006, a host of sources say. It was hoped newcomers elected to council last year would change that, but it doesn't seem to be the case. After the new council accepted Larry Tetrault's hasty resignation as chief administrator in October, some council members conspired to vote Tetrault back in a month later while a councillor recovered from heart surgery. The rehiring has been ruled invalid under the Municipal Act.

  View Full Column | 12/5/2011 3:20 AM | 0

• Inspiration and exasperation at the old marsh

  DELTA MARSH -- Most days, artist Peter Ward, who will soon be 92, drives his red pickup truck to his Delta Marsh home, leans over his easel, and paints his marsh landscapes for two to three hours. He tried painting from his temporary rental home near Portage la Prairie but it didn't work. The marsh gives him inspiration. But it also gives him exasperation now. Ward, like many people along Lake Manitoba, has been flooded out of his home since early July.

  View Full Column | 12/5/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Late ex-con's outstanding group home carries on

  Great news from Waterhen. The log home on the Waterhen River where Al Neath raised some of the most difficult foster kids in the Child and Family Services system has been bought, and owners plan to carry on Neath's work. Local couple Nicky and Cyrus Laquette, who worked with Al in the past, have bought it and will operate it as a group home for foster children, albeit not those with as many problems. They have even hired one of Al's former foster children to help.

  View Full Column | 11/25/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Bandmate tells story of fiddling legend

  GIMLI -- Part of what's so compelling in the life story of Métis fiddling legend Andy De Jarlis was his health and psychological battles. "He'd struggle with breathing," said former bandmate Joe Mackintosh, who played accordion with Andy De Jarlis and His Early Settlers. "It was so bad that, playing with him on stage, he'd have a spittoon and he was constantly bringing up phlegm."

  View Full Column | 10/31/2011 9:40 AM | 0

• Bless this house

  ELIE -- Jean and Linda Aquin began to suspect something was different about their house while doing renovations shortly after taking ownership. Jean was working in the kitchen and heard what he thought was Linda stomp up the stairs and suddenly stop. What's the matter, Jean yelled up.

  View Full Column | 10/28/2011 1:17 PM | 0

• Whiteshell hike a pilgrimage to past

  WHITESHELL PROVINCIAL PARK -- Tony Bone fasted four days and nights this summer as part of a spiritual quest, he explained as we hiked Tie Creek. Tie Creek is one of the most important aboriginal petroform sites in North America. Bone, 25, is also reading The Mishomis Book by Edward Benton Banai, an advocate of culture-based education. He is also helping with traditional sun dances.

  View Full Column | 10/21/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Not too late to paint

  GIMLI -- It's not over till it's over. JoAnne Gullachsen will tell you that. Gullachsen is a retired school teacher who always painted on the side. Last month, she was "discovered" at age 68. Her first art exhibit at Mayberry Fine Art in downtown Winnipeg runs until Oct. 13.

  View Full Column | 10/1/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Former mill town looks to the future

  POWERVIEW-PINE FALLS -- As Andrew Kaus and I stood on the Winnipeg River shore on former Tembec land slated for development, we suddenly heard the tremendous crack of a rifle just across the river from us. I went into a slight crouch. At first, I wondered if we were being shot at. My next thought was, because we were in a semi-residential area, that it could be a case of domestic violence.

  View Full Column | 09/19/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Saving a town house by house

  ELKHORN -- This village had early signs of "dying town syndrome." Some houses were boarded up. People feared losing the school and ice rink if depopulation continued.

  View Full Column | 09/6/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Foster dad took in the toughest kids

  Al Neath took the violent foster kids no one could manage. In the early 1980s, Neath set up a foster home along the Waternhen River, about 340 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

  View Full Column | 08/29/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Woman hopping to the challenge

  RM OF ROSSER -- True or False? Crops called hops are small and spring up suddenly like Poppin Hoppies, a short-lived game introduced in the 1970s.

  View Full Column | 08/8/2011 1:00 AM | 0

• Whiteshell's sacred stones

  NEAR NUTIMIK LAKE -- In the summer of 1979, 15 prisoners, many of them aboriginal, were transported by helicopter to a remote area of Whiteshell Provincial Park for the purpose of building a steel fence. It must have seemed a Fitzcarraldo-like endeavour. The prisoners didn't have a clue why they were building a giant steel fence in the middle of nowhere, recalled Jack Steinbring, the former head of the University of Winnipeg's anthropology department. There was nothing there except Canadian Shield.

  View Full Column | 07/30/2011 12:34 PM | 0

• A house for grain, a home for him

  There was a young man who lived in a silo. And whenever people passed he would wave, "Hi-lo."

  View Full Column | 07/25/2011 3:17 AM | 0

• Farmers market near few farms

  KENORA -- Kenora started its first farmers market with just six vendors in McLeod Park (beneath the Husky the Muskie statue) along Highway 17, which runs through the city. The experiment snarled traffic so badly, Kenora Police Service officers had to manually direct traffic.

  View Full Column | 07/18/2011 1:00 AM | 0

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