Winnipeg Free Press

What Central Park needs

From previous columns about living next door to Central Park, I have become known as "that guy who writes about the neighbourhood" to the seniors who watch immigrants from Africa play flag football in daishikis and see Slurpees sipped by shawl-covered sisters from Iran and Iraq. Updated 1:51 PM

1. Morgentaler deserves Order of Canada

   It's not surprising that a maelstrom of controversy followed the announcement Tuesday that Henry Morgentaler will be receiving the Order of Canada this year. Updated 12:25 AM

2. Debate between recent converts might amuse

   Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week declined an invitation from Opposition Leader Stéphane Dion to debate with him in Alberta the Liberals' carbon-tax proposal, or, as Mr. Dion likes to call it, his "Green Shift" policy. Updated 12:25 AM

3. My Winnipeg, too

   I thought I did a weird thing the other night. I was headed home after a showing of Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg at the Burton Cummings Theatre, when I found myself at Ellice Avenue. Updated 8:00 AM

4. 'Rural tigers' transforming Manitoba

   Rumours of the death of rural Canada appear to be greatly exaggerated. Updated 12:25 AM

5. From boom to bust in one year in Australia

   Australians are being warned that the next government budget will be a horror. Updated 12:25 AM

6. It worked on South Africa

   Prior to Karlheinz Schreiber becoming a household name, Prime Minister Stephen Harper would periodically seek the advice of former prime minister Brian Mulroney. This was especially true in the area of foreign policy, as reflected in his Conservative government's enhanced focus on Latin America and Canada-U.S. relations. Updated 12:50 AM

7. Why we rescue dogs, but not nations

   Snickers the dog is safe in Las Vegas, you'll be happy to know. Updated 12:50 AM

8. Canada Day party pooper

   Anne Golden sits in front of her desk in a rather sparse office looking like the Jeremiah Queen of Canada. Updated 12:50 AM

9. Political ruling

   Is the pot calling the kettle black? Updated 12:50 AM

10. The worse, the better, Dion believes

    Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has built a political career on bucking conventional wisdom. As intergovernmental affairs minister, he brushed aside the pundits and pollsters who said his Clarity Act would fan the flames of Quebec separatism and was proven right. Updated 12:50 AM

11. Olmert scandal putting Israel at risk

    TEL AVIV -- The ongoing corruption scandal involving Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is causing Israel irreparable strategic damage as the politically damaged leader attempts to shore up support, perhaps at the expense of the nation's security. Updated 12:50 AM

12. Leaving Kyoto behind

    The bitter arguments in the United States Senate this month over the Lieberman-Warner climate-change bill, which would have required major emitters to pay for the right to discharge greenhouse gases, proved that climate change caused by humans has come to the fore of U.S. policy debates. This fact may comfort those who believe that future generations will judge us on the zeal with which we face the challenge. It may even assuage the fears of those who believe that warming will end life as we know it. But political rhetoric is unlikely to put us on a path toward solving the problem of climate change in the best possible way. Updated 2:00 AM

13. Refugees have a tough time renting

    An exhaustive, two-year study of recently arrived refugees in Winnipeg shows they face significant housing challenges. Updated 2:00 AM

14. Beaded belt has tales to tell

    The belt's glittery beads winked at me from across the little thrift store. Since I've been suffering from magpie syndrome lately -- an unreasonable attraction to shiny things -- I quickly headed over to check out the possible find. Updated 2:00 AM

15. The godlike geek

    When Bill Gates helped to found Microsoft 33 years ago there was a company rule that no employees should work for a boss who wrote worse computer code than they did. Just five years later, with Microsoft choking on its own growth, Gates hired a business manager, Steve Ballmer, who had cut his teeth at Procter & Gamble, which sells soap. The founder had chucked his coding rule out of the window. Updated 12:05 AM

16. :Outriders in the U.S. election

    NEW YORK -- Among the many consequences of the 2000 presidential election was the elevation of Ralph Nader to pariah status among Democrats. The lifelong consumer advocate earned this honor by drawing some 97,000 votes in decisive Florida, which Al Gore lost by a mere 537 ballots to George W. Bush. Updated 12:05 AM

17. Hip-hop fun, but it won't change the world

    2Is it "pavement poetry (that) vibrates with commitment to speaking for the voiceless," as Michael Eric Dyson, a professor at Georgetown University, believes? Updated 12:05 AM

18. Who controls the streets?

    Which level of government is responsible for homeless, drug-addicted prostitutes? This sounds like the opening for a sick version of one of those lame jokes about the Canadian obsession for intergovernmental correctness. Updated 12:05 AM

19. In Souris or Sandy Hook, a vote's a vote

    There's a good reason why they don't let politicians draw Manitoba's electoral map. Updated 12:05 AM

20. French fries and Solzhenitsyn

    It was the 1950s. We thought the Russians were coming. Schools held bomb drills in which you dived under your desk. Updated 12:05 AM

21. Stadium benefits more fantasy than fact

    David Asper and Sam Katz seem to have finally convinced Vic Toews, the senior Manitoba Tory MP, that a new football stadium is something that the federal government should be investing in. Toews was recently quoted in the Winnipeg Free Press as saying that the project "is something to be excited about," citing the "urban renewal" aspects of the new proposal to justify his change of heart. Although nothing official has been announced, it appears that Premier Gary Doer and the provincial government are also onside with the project. Updated 12:55 AM

22. Art, history and football

    In a 1966 issue of the Manitoba Historical Society's Transactions magazine, Red River historian Anne Matheson Henderson wrote of a stretch of Winnipeg's riverfront all but forgotten by the city around it. In light of the flurry of public renewal projects happening at the time, Matheson Henderson made a modest suggestion. Updated 12:55 AM

23. Russert was the best of broadcast journalists

    Almost 15 years ago, during the Canadian general election that brought Jean Chrétien to office, Helen Promislow, a former city council colleague and a dear friend, died suddenly. Beyond the deep sense of loss, there was on my part, a sense of incredulity: How could Helen -- a shrewd political animal and, indeed, a political junkie if ever there was one -- how could Helen die in the midst of an election that held out the prospects of significant and far-reaching results, which would have provided us both with enough political fodder, including the rise of the Bloc and Reform and the reduction of the PC party to two seats, to have kept us both going for months? This disbelief on my part was quite irrational, but no less real for that. Updated 12:35 AM

24. Protectionism feeds food crisis

    The world has enormous reserve capacity in food production to deal with the current food crisis. But this potential has been held back too long by agricultural protectionism in developed economies and, more recently, by export restrictions imposed in some less developed countries. Updated 12:35 AM

25. Pay your taxes and help your children

    Noralou P. Roos and Leigh Cunningham provide interesting food for thought in their June 24 article Take a chance on at-risk children. The "good news" is that at birth, high-risk children have just as much potential as other children in Manitoba. This fact may not be news to many, but it reinforces the importance of investing in preventive programs to improve opportunity and outcomes for all Manitoba children. Updated 12:35 AM

26. Armed social work

    Anthropologists have always done it in the dirt, as a popular T-shirt proclaims, and it's well known that some of them served as spies in times of war and peace. Today, however, they have moved out of the dirt and the shadows and into the front lines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, complete with uniforms and weapons. Updated 12:35 AM

27. Risk-taking trumps safety in modern world

    Of all the changes and innovations that have taken place in the past 20 years or so, none compares to the development of the Internet. The development of the Internet is at least as profound as the invention of radio or television and we still don't know quite what it has done or where it will lead. Updated 12:35 AM

28. Suffering continued after residential schools closed

    Re: Harper might find he's sorry for apology, by Sidney Green, June 16; Picking and choosing our historical wrongs, by David O'Brien, June 19. Updated 12:35 AM

29. Peacekeeper or warmonger?

    Every nation tells itself stories to make itself feel better. Canadians seem to be better at this than most, tending to define themselves in opposition to their more powerful southern neighbour. Updated 12:35 AM

30. Get rid of subsidies on energy

    Not all the news from the energy front is bad. Last week, after a U.S.-China economic summit, Beijing announced that it would raise state-controlled gasoline prices by 17 per cent, to about $3.06 per gallon. That's still far below what Chinese motorists would be paying if they had to absorb the full effect of global oil price increases, as North Americans do -- but it's a start. Updated 12:35 AM

31. Dion's carbon tax the fairest option for Canada

    Which will Canadians prefer to tackle? Climate change and the energy crisis? The Liberal carrot and stick? Or just the Conservative stick? A political party that respects their intelligence? Or one that insults it? Updated 12:35 AM

32. Saudis to open oil taps

    When President George W. Bush travelled to Saudi Arabia in mid-May to plead for an increase in oil production, his friend King Abdullah resisted him. U.S. consumers might be straining to afford gasoline, the Saudi monarch said, but the best he could do would be an additional 300,000 barrels a day, raising total output to 9.45 million barrels a day. Now, however, the Saudis have improved their offer. In response to appeals from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and others, the kingdom has signalled its willingness to open the spigots wider, by 200,000 barrels a day above what it promised Bush. After months of blaming the spike in oil prices on speculators, the Saudis have finally admitted, tacitly to be sure, that the root cause is insufficient supply. Updated 8:37 AM

33. Take a chance on at-risk children

    Manitoba's growing labour shortage has prompted business and government to import foreign workers. Last week, Hytek announced it will bring 200 Filipino and South Korean workers to Manitoba. While immigration is one response to this looming crisis, it's an incomplete solution that ignores a home-grown renewable labour resource: our own at-risk kids. Updated 8:31 AM

34. France sends mixed message to Israel

    TEL AVIV -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy today ended an official visit to Israel and the West Bank, leaving many Israelis wondering what was the real meaning of his visit. Updated 7:25 AM

35. Alternate energies

    Since the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago, mankind has depended on fossil fuel. The notion that this might change is hard to contemplate. Greens may hector. Consciences may nag. The central heating's thermostat may turn down a notch or two. A less thirsty car may sit in the drive. But actually stop using the stuff? Impossible to imagine: Surely there isn't a serious alternative? Updated 12:25 AM

36. Donated laptop computers going to community centre

    Just before Christmas, I challenged readers to contribute to the "Give one, get one" program offered by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) foundation. The "Give one, get one" program was simple -- buy one XO laptop and it gets donated to a child in a developing country. Then you get an XO laptop sent to your home. Updated 12:25 AM

37. Strutting and swaggering, but not doing much else

    The federal Conservatives were fortunate the Maxime Bernier-Julie Couillard imbroglio came along. It diverted our attention from the real problems they're having in foreign affairs. Updated 12:25 AM

38. It won't work on the rez

    'THE federal government has Updated 12:05 AM

39. On the backs of the poor

    One of the highlights of the last provincial budget was a $100-tax deduction that Manitobans can expect when filing their 2008 income tax returns. For the average household, the $100 tax break translates into $60 or $70. While a little extra cash is always nice, you have to wonder how good the average person would feel if they realized those few extra dollars came at the expense of the poorest of the poor -- the 263,000 Manitobans whose incomes are so low they don't pay income tax. Updated 12:05 AM

40. Fragments of life are still worth keeping

    Former Justice Charles Huband's recent commentary on the case of Samuel Golubchuk -- whose family is trying to protect him from having his life supports withdrawn by physicians at Grace Hospital -- expresses the belief that since, in his opinion, Golubchuk "will never recover from the massive medical problems that afflict him," the public must therefore feel "outraged" at his continued treatment. Updated 10:32 AM

41. Bad, bad birds

    Infidelity is universal. When it comes to philandering, avian unfaithfulness to partners is as rampant as in humans. Bird research in northern Manitoba has been particularly informative in that regard, shedding light on the prevalence of cheating partners in resident and migratory birds. Updated 12:05 AM

42. From public housing to home ownership

    Public housing, in which those with little or no income are provided with an apartment whose rent is heavily subsidized, is a feature of social welfare programming in all Canadian cities. Updated 12:05 AM

43. Reconciling caveman clutter with modern minimalism

    An object is worth more to you if you already own it. Researchers found that some Cornell students who would choose a chocolate bar over a coffee mug start to prefer the mug once they have been given one. Updated 12:05 AM

44. The urban forest

    Hope springs eternal, and so it is with the ash trees on Ash Street. The ashes have looked more than a little forlorn for years on the once-leafy stretch in north River Heights, but infestations of the scale insect and a particularly bad cankerworm plague, years back, denuded most of the trees on my block. Updated 12:25 AM

45. Civil liberty bounces back in Britain, U.S.

    Two hundred and seventy people convicted of no crime languish in Guantanamo, and the British Parliament has just voted to extend detention without trial to 42 days. In both the United States and Britain, governments that attack civil liberties in the name of security still rule. But this month the tide has turned in both countries. Updated 12:25 AM

46. The grouch as guerrilla art

    ABOUT a month ago, just after turning off the St. Updated 12:25 AM

47. Two wheels are good

    It's Bike-To-Work day today, and if all went according to plan, I arrived at Mountain Avenue this morning on two wheels. Updated 12:20 AM

48. 'Iguana-gate' shows colour of Aussie politics

    An incident involving an iguana, an unborn child foretold as a "demon'' and a pair of allegedly pompous politicians have provided Australians with their own modern-day parable of the dark dangers of hubris. Updated 12:20 AM

49. In a hardware store, the old becomes new again

    It is a near-universal phenomenon that in most communities there are local -- often small -- businesses which are also local institutions, and which seem somehow to have worked their way into the community's landscape, identity and collective memory. Winnipeg provides many illustrations. Among restaurants, for example, Simon's was and Oscar's is; as are Sals and Kelekis and, one hopes, Basil's of uncertain future. Mary Scorer Books was and McNally Robinson is. Updated 12:20 AM

50. Do it one more time

    The first time I came to Winnipeg in the early 1990s, I visited The Forks. It was less developed than it is now. There was no hotel, no multi-storey parking lot, no skate-boarding park and no grand entrance, but it was still an urban jewel. Updated 12:30 AM

51. Picking and choosing among our historic wrongs

    Now that Canada has apologized to aboriginals over the residential schools issue, are there any other groups in line for their own statement of nostrum mendum (our fault) from Ottawa? Or will the country's first people be the last to receive an official We're Sorry? Updated 12:30 AM

52. Bush and Brown bump elbows in Britain

    LONDON -- President George W. Bush was in one of his oddly chipper moods when he arrived for dinner with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street on Sunday night. Updated 12:30 AM

53. Don't fail twice in Iraq

    After all the blood and blunders, people are right to be skeptical when good news is announced from Iraq. Yet it is now plain that over the past several months, while Americans have been distracted by their presidential primaries, many things in Iraq have at long last started to go right. Updated 12:30 AM

54. How to kill the auto industry

    After nearly two weeks, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) dismantled the blockade of General Motors' Oshawa headquarters on the order of a Canadian court, but not before CAW president Buzz Hargrove unveiled a plan that, instead of boosting Canada's auto industry, would destroy thousands of Canadian jobs and decimate the industry. Meanwhile CAW action directly imperils future auto job prospects in Canada. Updated 12:30 AM

55. NAFTA costs jobs, creates pollution

    Deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is thinking the unthinkable; saying the unsayable. He's publicly questioning Canada's energy policy; or more accurately, its complete lack of one. Updated 12:30 AM

56. It's time to get rapid transit rolling

    Around the world, people are feeling pain from the increasing cost of oil and gasoline. In Winnipeg, many people are frustrated and angry because they feel powerless in the face of continuously increasing gas prices. Awareness of the dangers and costs of car use and pollution is ever growing. But what are our elected officials doing about it? Updated 12:25 AM

57. France makes move in Mideast

    TEL AVIV -- While Israel continues to be preoccupied with the corruption scandal of its prime minister, Ehud Olmert, a major diplomatic change is taking place in the region: Taking advantage of the vacuum created by the dying days in the United States of George W. Bush's presidency, France has entered as a major player in Middle Eastern diplomacy. The purpose of the new French initiative is to secure Lebanon's independence, with Syrian co-operation. Updated 12:25 AM

58. Tainted tomatoes are a tell-tale warning

    Last week, restaurant chains and grocery stores across North America pulled fresh tomatoes from their menus and shelves after reports of salmonella poisoning in the U.S. Updated 12:25 AM

59. Standing straight and strong

    I watched the prime minister's apology to residential school survivors at my future mother-in-law's home in Charleswood. Her name is Bette Spence. She's 90 years old, originally from the Little Red River reserve, near Prince Albert, Sask. Updated 12:20 AM

60. Testament to growing native sophistication

    Few would dispute that Canada's shameful treatment of many of its aboriginals has left a stain on its image. Between 1870 and 1996, an estimated 150,000 indigenous children were wrenched from their homes and sent to Christian boarding schools, where many were sexually and physically abused. Updated 12:20 AM

61. Pitfalls of Harper's permanent campaign

    Who in their right mind would copy some of the political tactics of U.S. President George W. Bush? Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that's who. Updated 12:20 AM

62. Harper might find he's sorry for apology

    It is very questionable and probably unlikely that the Harper apology, as trumpeted, will be the springboard to a more positive relationship between Canada as a country and its aboriginal citizens. Updated 11:35 AM

63. 'I will always win'

    When I was young, I lived in a modest rowhouse in the slope of West Baltimore's Tioga Parkway. There were three bedrooms and two bathrooms (but only one that any of us bothered to use). Out back there was a terrace with a rotting balcony. I almost died out there one day -- leaning against the crumbling wood, I tumbled headlong when it gave way, but caught myself on the small back-door roof and fell, luckily, feet-first to the ground. Updated 11:35 AM

64. Infertile grounds for concern

    On my list of Things to Worry About, fertility is close to the top. Lack of fertility to be precise. I'm talking about our abysmally low birth rate. Updated 11:35 AM

65. Address racial profiling

    What happened last week to Christian rapper Fresh I.E. in Winnipeg has all the hallmarks of racial profiling. Updated 11:30 AM

66. War on terrorism cannot invalidate rule of law

    The Supreme Court ruling Thursday that those held at Guantanamo Bay have a constitutional right to challenge their detentions in federal court is a welcome victory for due process and the rule of law. It completes a signal and totally avoidable failure by President Bush, who will leave office with the nation's regime for holding al-Qaida combatants in shambles. And it leaves unanswered many questions that will undoubtedly trigger more litigation. Updated 11:30 AM

67. Walesa: Polish hero, Nobel winner -- communist informant?

    Did the most famous living Pole, Lech Walesa, collaborate with the communist secret police? Updated 11:30 AM

68. NAFTA problems need fixing

    Canadians supposedly love free trade. According to several polls and the accepted conventional wisdom, Canadians think the North American Free Trade Agreement is such a good thing for their country that any politician -- Canadian or American -- who tampers with it is asking for trouble. Updated 8:29 AM

69. Obama's got that Trudeau swing

    LOS ANGELES --Barack Obama equals Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Dare we make such a comparison? Updated 12:55 AM

70. Let's sell water to the U.S.A.

    Manitoba could net more than $1 billion a year by piping south one per cent of the water that flows into Hudson Bay and selling it to the United States. Updated 12:55 AM

71. He's a lot like Bobby Kennedy

    Books will no doubt be written about Hillary Clinton's campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination and many will doubtless focus on why, starting as the candidate to beat, she ended it as the candidate who was beaten. Some factors are obvious: the failure to recognize the appeal of Barack Obama and, even more, the desire for change and the attractiveness of a younger, cooler black American who seems to hold the promise, not of change merely, but of a generationally different approach to politics. Updated 12:45 AM

72. Obama likened to both Kennedys

    Ted Sorensen, John F. Kennedy's speech writer, has likened Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the highest office in the United States, to the legendary former president. Updated 12:45 AM

73. Nomads back on road despite gas prices

    Every winter they head out, venturing tentatively onto Australia's bustling highways like a bunch of square dancers at a techno rave. Updated 12:45 AM

74. It was wrong

    Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools. Updated 12:50 AM

75. 'Affirmed forever'

    The response of Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology to residential school survivors. Updated 12:50 AM

76. Opposition parties respond

    "As the leader of the party that was in government for more than 70 years of the last century, I acknowledge our role and our shared responsibility in this tragedy. We must, together as a nation, face the truth to ensure that we never have to apologize to another generation, that the tragedy of forced assimilation of aboriginal peoples in Canada never happens again. Updated 12:50 AM

77. The scandal that could really damage Canada

    Former foreign minister Maxime Bernier's fall from grace in a black comedy of biker gangs, cleavage and a handkerchief dress is salacious. But Canada's apparent attempt to damage Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee with the odds-on chance of winning the White House next January, has more potential to do serious damage. Updated 12:55 AM

78. Dandelion plague

    If you have some free time in the next few days Mr. Premier, Mr. Mayor, and any interested councillors and members of the legislature, please take a drive north on Roch Street from Johnson Avenue all the way to McLeod Avenue. Updated 12:55 AM

79. An outsider's view of residential schools

    The residential school years were, without doubt, a terrible experience for some native students. One can only imagine the torment of being unable to escape one's abusers. Today many still suffer the effects of being molested by those who preached right and wrong. But not all students suffered; some gained much by being able to attend these institutions. Updated 12:55 AM

80. Blowing smoke on cap-and-trade

    Federal Environment Minister John Baird says the Ontario-Quebec agreement on a joint cap-and-trade plan for carbon credits is just politics smoke and mirrors. Updated 12:50 AM

81. Not the White House, but it's a lot

    As the sun was sinking on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, the nation's wounded feminists were burning up the Internet. Updated 12:50 AM

82. Olmert's war-mongering hollow

    TEL AVIV -- When Ehud Olmert convenes his first cabinet meeting today after his trip to Washington, he'll find himself in a situation that no previous Israeli prime minister has faced. Updated 12:50 AM

83. Don't sign treaties, guys!

    Photos of a tribe of people in the Amazon travelled around the world recently. Warriors -- painted red and black -- at full attention, shooting arrows at the offending airplane from which the pics were taken. Their message was clear: Back off. Updated 12:00 AM

84. Stonewall seems to have found the answer

    The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, the annual parade of the best work in these fields, opened last week with a paper on how contemporary life is making us unhappy. Updated 12:00 AM

85. Dr. Day's deceptive language

    You have published the opinions of Brian Day, the brash current president of the Canadian Medical Association, on what he thinks we need to do to improve Canadian health care. Updated 12:00 AM

86. The right candidates for both Democrats and Republicans

    It is hard to believe after all the thrills and spills, but the real presidential race is only now beginning. Updated 11:45 AM

87. Keeping the city balanced

    The newly formed Winnipeg Citizens' Coalition is a group of volunteers that has been meeting over the past six months to develop a plan to mobilize a coalition of citizens and groups that would offer an alternative vision for the city of Winnipeg -- a vision that is based on developing an inclusive city that values difference, co-operation and respect. Updated 12:15 AM

88. From cakewalk to quagmire

    This time last year it looked as if Hillary Clinton's path to the Democratic nomination would be a cakewalk. She had the best brand name in American politics. She controlled the Democratic establishment. She had money to burn and a double-digit lead in the opinion polls. And as the first American woman to have a chance of breaking the presidential glass ceiling, she had a great story to tell. Updated 12:15 AM

89. An inequity at Batoche

    While the events of May 1885 are long in our past, there are still lessons we should take from that conflict. Updated 12:15 AM

90. No need to outlaw peaceful panhandling

    Should we criminalize peaceful panhandling? To figure out where we stand, we have first to understand the difference between peaceful and aggressive panhandling. Aggressive panhandling mainly involves demanding money in a threatening manner. For example, if a panhandler is turned down by a pedestrian but refuses to take "no" for an answer, or if the panhandler follows the pedestrian, grabbing his arm, this is considered aggressive. Then the law is right to intervene. But begging which simply involves holding out one's hand or asking politely for help, even when this request is made near an ATM or a bus stop, is not aggressive and should not be outlawed. Updated 12:15 AM

91. Daycare is best option

    In response to Libby Simmon's article No Voice, No Choice, Free Press, June 3. I do not put my child in daycare to suit my needs; I work to provide for my family. If I didn't work, we would not have a home. We would not have food. We would not have toys, or clothes or heat or water. Updated 12:15 AM

92. 'We all deserve respect"

    It's Pride time in Winnipeg, with tomorrow's rally on the legislative grounds and parade through downtown set to cap off what's become an annual 10-day festival of events celebrating our city's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) community. Updated 12:25 AM

93. To blissful ignorance -- and a winning ticket

    Happiness, or the lack of it, has been much in this news this week. Like many other people, I suspect, I have always wondered why I am not happier. I am learning, slowly and in little bits, but learning nevertheless. Updated 12:25 AM

94. E-books spell big change

    Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, destination for nearly four-fifths of online book buyers, appears harmless. But to some in the publishing industry, he looms like a recurring nightmare. Updated 12:25 AM

95. 'Jeeves' draws jeers in Oz

    He may have rescued his foppish British employer from pink silk ties, white dinner jackets and a regrettable attempt to "wear a straw hat in the metropolis,'' but Jeeves has done no favours for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Updated 12:55 AM

96. What's a school to do?

    In an earlier column, I wondered whether the public school system was sufficiently girded to meet the formidable challenge posed by high school dropout rates among aboriginal people. I looked at the work being done on the core curriculum in Minnesota by private and corporate foundations inside public schools, a line not yet crossed in Canada, where government is regarded as the sole trustee of public education. Updated 12:55 AM

97. Separating CBC's straw men into wheat and chaff

    Last month, in the course of what has proved an ongoing discussion of programming changes at CBC Radio 2, I quoted Chris Boyce, CBC's new director of English language programming, as saying that he didn't buy the argument that "one kind of music is inherently better or smarter than other kinds." Updated 12:55 AM

98. There is to hope

    Forty years after the bullets were fired, John Turner has trouble talking about the loss of his close friend, U.S. Senator Bobby Kennedy. Updated 12:55 AM

99. One set of books better than two

    Two commentaries in these pages in recent days prompted me to write about Bill 38 -- the bill to modernize balance budget legislation -- that was introduced in April of this year. Updated 12:55 AM

100. Royal traditions worth embracing

     The woman getting out of the car in front of me at the Fairmont Hotel earlier this week was wearing a dress uniform in full tartan with the traditional tight jacket and stripes on the arm, indicating her rank. Such is the presentation for royalty. Updated 12:55 AM

101. What about my sister, my husband, my son?

     I received an e-mail from a girlfriend a while back asking me to pledge support for a breast cancer walkathon. Updated 12:50 AM

102. The tyranny of cheerfulness

     I can pinpoint the exact afternoon I became a breast cancer heretic. Updated 12:50 AM

103. Progressive tax system dismantled

     Federal Liberal environment critic David McGuinty says his party's prospective new carbon policy will give Canadians more of what they want -- income and new, green technologies; and less of what they don't want -- greenhouse-gas emissions and old, polluting technologies. Updated 12:50 AM

104. No voice, no choice

     Two-year-old "Janie" takes the little, pink- knitted sweater her grandmother gave her from the small cubicle at the day-care centre. She holds it close and walks towards the outer door. It is closed. She stares at the door. It is only mid-afternoon. Janie doesn't express herself well with words yet, but her actions say she wants to go home. No one notices. Updated 2:00 AM

105. Rock music's black footprints

     As any country-music fan knows, Willie Nelson, America's favorite outlaw-troubadour, can't wait to get on the road again. Although he often sings about whiskey, since 2004 his tireless touring has been fueled by an entirely different sort of liquid: biofuel (which he has cleverly branded "BioWillie"). Updated 2:00 AM

106. Racking up bills for our kids to pay

     How would you feel if the Canadian government sent you a letter suggesting you owe an extra $150,000? Updated 2:00 AM

107. Carbon tax runs on empty

     There are days when I don't understand federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion. Updated 12:50 AM

108. Two years old and counting

     There was a National Day of Action rally downtown at Old Market Square on May 29. With all the musicians and pow wow dancers on the agenda, it looked more like a street festival than serious activist action. Updated 12:50 AM

109. Oil shock is slowly sinking in

     In the early 1970s a four-fold rise in the price of oil almost brought the world to a standstill. The shock of the Arab embargo left a deep mark in many countries: America subjected its cars to fuel-efficiency standards, France embraced nuclear power -- though sadly shoene rukku, or "energy-conscious fashion," the inspiration for Japan's fetching short-sleeved business suit, was ahead of its time. Updated 12:50 AM

110. Get the LED out!

     If you have ever had the wonderful experience of walking during the evening in cities like Rome or Paris, or, closer to home, Montreal, then you can easily understand the importance and value of properly and dramatically lighting buildings, architectural features and sidewalks of city centres. Updated 11:55 PM

111. NDP abandons its democratic roots

     Tommy Douglas would be turning over in his grave if he saw legislation introduced last month by Manitoba's NDP government. Updated 9:40 AM

112. Bill 37 doesn't go far enough

     Manitoba is the only provincial government that allows public hearings on all bills presented in the legislature (no other province does this). In recent days, Bill 37 concerning electoral reform has been discussed at the legislature with more than 107 delegations signed up to speak on it. As Elizabeth Fleming has stated in the Free Press (NDP shows disdain for democracy, May 24), this is what passes for citizen participation and democracy under this government. But hey, it's a helluva lot more than any other province has! Updated 11:55 PM

113. Top 10 health care lessons from Britain

     In 1934, the Canadian Medical Association produced guidelines for a national health program funded and administered by the state. That was eight years before the release of Sir William Beveridge's plan for a National Health Service in Britain (which later formed the basis for Canada's medicare system). Updated 11:55 PM

114. It's a scandal!

     Political scandals are nothing new, but how we talk about political scandal has definitely changed. Updated 11:55 PM

115. A primer on balanced budget law

     Lynne Fernandez's recent piece in the Free Press on Bill 38: The Balanced Budget, Fiscal Management and Taxpayer Accountability Act (Government should be able to post deficits, raise taxes more easily, May 29) shows how easy it is to misunderstand Bill 38 and the importance of the issues involved. Updated 11:55 PM

116. Shred most of Bill 37

     Manitoba MLAs have all kinds of good reasons to vote down Bill 37, the NDP government's misguided attempt to "strengthen" democracy in Manitoba. Updated 12:25 AM

117. Perennial joke no more

     On May 25 a dysfunctional minor party picked a grumpy ex- Republican as its presidential candidate. This may be just another quirk in the quirky history of the Libertarian Party. But it just might be something more than this: a further sign that the Republican coalition is splintering under John McCain's feet. Updated 12:25 AM

118. Free speech -- except on campus

     Student unions and faculty associations at Canadian universities are not much known these days for defending academic freedom, but earlier this year Gilary Massa, a vice-president of the students' organization at York University, issued a declaration that is about as ringing a defence of freedom of speech as one is likely to come across in this time of awkward language and extreme political correctness. Updated 12:25 AM

119. Self-serving 'principles'

     In May, at a time when questions were being asked in the House of Commons about whether Maxime Bernier's ex-girlfriend might constitute a security risk, Stephen Harper was utterly dismissive. Updated 12:15 AM

120. Giving gift of blood builds community

     I attended a Canadian Blood Services awards presentation honouring persons who had donated blood 50, 75, 100 and 150 times last month. I received a certificate for achieving the 100 donation level. Updated 12:15 AM

121. Ask a non-expert

     Australia would be a far, far better place in which to live if we simply banned poverty, the slovenly use of the Queen's English and allowed people to make love in public . Updated 12:15 AM

122. Government should be able to post deficits, raise taxes more easily

     The NDP government is holding hearings on Bill 38: The Balanced Budget, Fiscal Management and Taxpayer Accountability Act. Updated 12:40 AM

123. Society of drunks returns

     LONDON -- Soho, the entertainment district, is a joyous sight on a Saturday evening, crowded with young people. Pubs and bars spill out onto the sidewalks. The sleazy strip clubs that once characterized the area are still there, but they are not the predominant feature. For young Londoners, this is the place to have a night out. Updated 12:40 AM

124. New law would allow government to raid Crowns in order to overspend

     The NDP is proposing to repeal Manitoba's balanced budget law so it can take us back to the old NDP days of annual deficits, increased debt, and Crown rate hikes. Updated 12:40 AM

125. Tough love in Afghanistan

     In conventional wisdom it is the "good war" that was neglected to wage the bad one in Iraq. Afghanistan's Taliban regime had provided al-Qaida with a haven and refused after the attacks of Sept. 11 to give its leaders up. When America invaded there was no twisting of intelligence, as in Iraq, and no great rift at the United Nations. Updated 12:30 AM

126. A Harper-style Senate would hurt Canada

     First, fixed dates for federal elections. Now, elected senators. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is staying true to his Alberta Reform party base, even at the risk of alienating Quebec. Updated 12:30 AM

127. NDP bill crosses line from bad to awful

     Who's laughing now? Updated 12:30 AM

128. Patronage actually works

     Why all the fuss about Vic Toews being considered for appointment as a Superior Court judge? Updated 6:58 AM

129. Stick to Fido and Fluffy

     Exotic pets have become a matter of great concern in Canada. Enormous numbers of alien birds, mammals, reptiles and fish are imported and privately owned. Some of them are dangerous, others pose a health risk and still more could impact on native ecosystems if they escaped to the wild. Updated 12:50 AM

130. Coping with religion in a secular state

     IT HAS been 40 years since Britain's Enoch Powell made his famous "rivers of blood" speech warning about the social effects of immigration upon his land. Updated 12:50 AM

131. Make things better for the kid

     My mom used to tell me a story once in awhile, about how she considered giving me up for adoption. Updated 6:17 AM

132. A heaven for refugees

     Here's something you may not know: Winnipeggers sponsor more refugees than any other Canadian community. Updated 6:18 AM

133. A magic moment in Winnipeg

     Khari and I recently served as honourary co-chairmen of the Third Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival -- Storytelling on the Path to Peace at the University of Manitoba. Updated 11:40 PM

134. The nuclear giant stirs

     MANITOBA Hydro seriously considered building a nuclear reactor in the Lac du Bonnet region in the1970s. Updated 12:10 AM

135. Freeing up Plan B frees women as well

     Thanks to the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities (NAPRA), Plan B -- aka the morning-after pill -- has just become a bit easier to acquire. Updated 12:40 AM

136. Hangin' with Death's Head

     Crystal Skull may be the most beautiful object I have ever seen Updated 12:40 AM

137. NDP shows disdain for democracy

     The Free Press editorial board does Manitobans a public service when it points out the flaws in Bill 37 and asks the Government of Manitoba to send it back for proper public consultation (First ask the people, May 2; 'Partisan' censorship, May 14). Bill 37, consists of a new Lobbyists Registration Act plus amendments to four existing, election-related Acts. Bundling five bills into one bill makes it difficult for the public and the opposition parties to respond to the good, the bad and the ugly they contain. The day before a second bill, Bill 31, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act, was tabled, the Free Press published a news report, Province to hire privacy chief, May 1. The report was premature and only partly true. Updated 12:40 AM

138. Serbia sulks toward coalition rule

     The rhetoric before the Serbian parliamentary election on May 11 was ugly enough, but it has got worse since. President Boris Tadic spun the outcome as a victory for the pro-European Union forces when only half the votes were counted, which served his purposes as he is also the leader of the main pro-EU party, the Democratic Party. But when all the votes were counted it turned out that 48 per cent of Serbs had voted anti-EU, and only 44 per cent pro-EU. (The rest voted for various small ethnic-minority parties.) Updated 12:40 AM

139. Australia is 'the lucky country, but only for rich people'

     After a decade of gorging on prosperity, Australians appear so financially bloated they're no longer sure what it means to be wealthy. Updated 12:40 AM

140. An education gap that business could fill

     Corporate giving for improving academic achievement in Winnipeg has really just nibbled at the edges of education and schools. That's not true of what's happening in the United States, including in Minnesota, just south of us. Updated 12:40 AM

141. Film worlds collide at Cannes

     CANNES, France -- The story in the trade press -- Variety, Screen and The Hollywood Reporter -- is that there are fewer people here at the film market than in previous years. You wouldn't notice from the excitement around the celebrities. As everyone must know by now, this hasn't been so much the Cannes Film Festival as the Indiana Jones festival. But we get ahead of ourselves. Updated 8:00 AM

142. Kennedy's bridge over troubled water

     It is often asked how history might have unfolded if John F. Kennedy had not been assassinated. Would he, for example, have ended the war in Vietnam and declared war on poverty, while mending relations with Cuba? The downside is that he might have lived long enough to see his reputation sullied with lurid exposés about his serial adultery and high-risk affairs with Marilyn Monroe and Judith Campbell, the one-time girlfriend of Mafia kingpin Sam Giancana and Frank Sinatra. Updated 7:58 AM

143. Screwing the Tories -- and the taxpayers

     Manitoba now has a "vote tax." Yes, just when you thought the NDP government had taxed everything, they have decided to tax us when we vote. Updated 12:55 AM

144. Don't blame farmers

     Don't blame farmers As food prices increase, concern grows about world hunger. To some, the solution is to make farmers take less for their grain. On the Prairies, where prices have been so low that it has been almost impossible to make a living growing food, this comes as a shock. In a couple of short years, how can we have moved from record-low prices to being blamed for worldwide food shortages? Updated 2:00 AM

145. Generations X and Y changing the face of Canada

     When Frank Graves began his multi-year Rethinking Government survey in 1994, he found the vast majority of Canadians had a strong sense of national identity, saw government as an important force for social and economic justice and regarded decentralization as "code for the federal government and governments in general abandoning responsibilities." Updated 2:00 AM

146. Anti-Hamas front crumbling in EU, Arab world

     TEL AVIV -- Despite the exceptionally warm and friendly speech that United States President George W. Bush delivered last week in the Israeli Knesset, Israel is witnessing a slow but constant collapse of the anti-Hamas front in Europe and the Arab world. Updated 2:00 AM

147. When life was a beach

     For a couple of days, I've been running around looking for things that can't be seen. I wanted to explore the places where our parents and grandparents had fun -- Winnipeg's nightclubs, dance halls, vaudeville houses and the boardwalks of Winnipeg Beach and Grand Beach on Lake Winnipeg, about 80 kilometres north of the city. Updated 12:25 AM

148. Among the ruins of a residential school

     Among the ruins of a residential school It's a bright Friday morning when my friend Len -- a journalist and ex-cop -- and I set off in our sunnies, sipping extra large coffees on a road trip to Brandon. Wheat City, here we come. We've been invited to speak at Sioux Valley School -- located in Brandon and run by the band -- by Sherryl Maglione and her native studies students. Visits to schools are always great and this is no exception. Who wouldn't love hanging out with a group of bright-eyed kids for awhile? Updated 12:25 AM

149. Waste not and make more money

     Walk into almost any big supermarket in North America and you will find a cornucopia of food. The mountains of fresh produce on display are a testament to shoppers' desire for choice and freshness -- and retailers' desire to relieve them of their dollars. Updated 12:25 AM

150. OMG, KMN before my head asplodes

     SOMETIMES it is hard to tell the difference between a person LOLing and crying -- but I am definitely weeping. The cause for my earth-shattering depression is an April 25 Pew Research Center study that polled 12- to 17-year-olds on their attitudes about writing. A heart-stopping 38 per cent said they let chat-speak -- such as LOL (for "laughing out loud"), ROFL ("rolling on the floor laughing"), BRB ("be right back"), TTYL ("talk to ya later") -- slip into essays and homework. Updated 12:40 AM

151. Testing the 'last nice country'

     The taxi driver in bustling Cardiff, Wales was a weary man, but when he learned his fare was a Canadian, his smile was spontaneous. "Ah, Canada!" he sighed, "the last nice country in the world!" Updated 12:40 AM

152. Credible museum, please

     On a recent road trip through the United States, I learned first-hand why taxpayers need to insist on "autonomous governance" at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Updated 12:40 AM

153. China's Great Firewall

     A group of Chinese students on May 9 protested the arrival of the Global Human Rights Torch in Winnipeg. The Human Rights Torch is an international symbol of the effort to end human rights abuses in China before the Beijing Summer Olympic Games. Updated 12:40 AM

154. Right on the road from Shanghai to Chicago

     THE May 2006 federal budget provided $16.5 billion in federal support for provincial, territorial and municipal infrastructure. Of this amount, $591 million was allocated for the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative. Updated 12:40 AM

155. A case for equity in public education funding

     Would it be fair if the provincial sales tax were 10 per cent if you shopped in St. James and six per cent if you shopped in River Heights? Updated 12:40 AM

156. Paving paradise has high price

     When low-cost air travel was taking off in Europe in the early 1990s, the German and the British ambassadors to Greece used to call each other at the end of each week during the summer, to compare notes on the bad behavior of the visitors from their countries. Updated 12:00 AM

157. Beyond appeasement

     On Friday, Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan strapped an explosive vest on a 10-year-old boy and sent him in to the village of Nalgham, about 40 kilometres from Kandahar city. Updated 12:00 AM

158. Less gas on carbon tax needed

     Contrary to what is now accepted wisdom, the Liberal Party's leadership problems did not begin when St ©phane Dion was unexpectedly handed the party's crown 18 months ago. They began when the Conservative Party told us over and over that Dion is "not a leader" and Canadians, including many Liberals, started believing the claim. Updated 12:00 AM

159. CBC closes classical music to students

     James Ehnes, of Brandon, -- at 32 years old with most of his career still ahead of him -- is now a widely acclaimed violinist both nationally and internationally, one measure of which has been his receipt of many honours, including a Grammy and five Juno awards. A reviewer of his complete Mozart Violin Concertos, in Fanfare, a leading American music magazine, described them as "chocolate to the ear." Gramophone, perhaps the most highly respected music magazine in the English-speaking world, said of the same recordings, "Playing of brilliance and rapt eloquence puts this Mozart set among the finest and Ehnes here reinforces his credentials as one of the most brilliant and discerning players of his generation, with a sweet, gleaming tone and a purity of intonation that are second to none." Updated 12:45 AM

160. Political progress comes slowly for women

     Leanne Rowat scoffs at the idea women lack the confidence to have a political career, to hold high office and make public policy decisions. That's a small bit of comfort to the ears of a battle-axe feminist who long ago lost hope that the gender imbalance would change in a generation or two. Updated 12:45 AM

161. Aussies battle sharks and crocs

     Twenty years after Crocodile Dundee convinced the world Australians were all fearless crocodile wrestlers, life has begun imitating art Down Under. Updated 12:45 AM

162. Responsibility to protect

     The current situation in cyclone-ravaged Burma, otherwise known as Myanmar, is especially grim. Some disaster experts expect the death toll to climb to over 100,000 people in the coming days and weeks. Moreover, if the aid situation on the ground doesn't improve soon, that mind-numbing figure could needlessly rise even further. "If the humanitarian aid does not get into the country on a larger scale, there's the risk of a second catastrophe," explains Elisabeth Byrs, the UN spokesperson for the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Updated 12:40 AM

163. Blame the Thirty Comrades

     It seems incredible now, when neighbouring Thailand has four times Burma's per capita income, that at independence in 1948 Burma was the richest country in Southeast Asia. With huge resources, a high literacy rate, and good infrastructure by the standards of the time (due to the British empire's obsession with railways and irrigation projects), it seemed fated to succeed. Instead it has drifted steadily downwards, and is now the poorest country in the region. Updated 12:40 AM

164. Winnipeg is made for bikes and bike lanes

     Winnipeg's and Manitoba's economies appear more robust than they have for many years. As the nation's labour force stagnates, Manitoba's continues to grow. Houses continue to sell at more than their asking price and, while spring always makes Winnipeggers feel better, there is a sense of optimism in the air. Updated 12:40 AM

165. It's a fight to keep fishing

     Henry Traverse is a proud Anishinabe, a family man, a commercial fisher and what most people would call a "traditionalist." The Anishinabe are the-third largest Indian tribe in North America -- only the Cherokee and Navajo are larger in population. Updated 12:55 AM

166. Conservative bullying undermines democracy

     Libel chill to stifle public inquiry. Intimidation to turn national institutions into servants of the party in power. Trash talk to destabilize opponents. A "black book" of procedural dirty tricks to disrupt parliamentary committees. Updated 12:55 AM

167. DNA tells tales you don't need to hear

     The company 23andMe promises to "unlock the secrets of your own DNA." Navigenics wants you to be tested to "do everything you can to stay healthy." And deCODEme hopes that genetic testing will "prompt people to do the right thing." Updated 12:55 AM

168. Alberta oilsands ironies

     Peter Lougheed and David Suzuki are not two names you would normally expect to find in the same sentence, let alone on the same side of an issue. But when it comes to the Alberta oilsands, these bedfellows aren't so strange when you consider what's at stake. Updated 12:55 AM

169. Fox in charge of henhouse

     The NDP has introduced a bill that should shock and outrage every Manitoban. It jeopardizes democracy, infringes on Charter rights and seeks only to keep the ruling party in power ad infinitum. Bill 37 was stealthily introduced on April 30, hidden amid a flurry of other bills and government announcements and done without consulting political parties, experts or Manitobans. The NDP has cynically disguised it as a positive move that simply sets fixed election dates. Within this Trojan horse, Bill 37 is actually an attempt to fix elections for the NDP. Updated 12:55 AM

170. Hezbollah grabs real power in Lebanon

     TEL AVIV -- When U.S. President George W. Bush arrives this week for his second visit to Israel this year, he will find a new Middle East where Syria and Iran have increased their influence at the expense of Israel and moderate, pro-western Arab allies. Updated 12:55 AM

171. The equalization puzzle

     Once in a while, nice people, whom I don't know, come up to me in public places and ask: What the heck is going on in Ottawa? Updated 12:35 AM

172. Trends in Iraq are taking a grim downturn

     You'll hear none of this from Washington, but the trend lines in Iraq are turning down again. Updated 12:35 AM

173. Looking for Molly's angel

     Molly Genaille is a North End angel. Updated 12:40 AM

174. Cyclone's hell holds hope for Myanmar

     The decision by Myanmar's ruling generals to move their capital in 2005 from Yangon, the country's biggest city, to the remote mountain fastness of Naypyidaw was as baffling as many of their other policies. Local rumour ascribed it to the advice of fortune-tellers, who foretold revolt and disaster in Yangon. Updated 12:00 AM

175. Obama should make health reform Job No. 1

     On the assumption that President Barack Obama survives for a full four-year term -- for it is generally assumed that, as the first African-American president, he will face a higher-than-average risk of assassination -- what changes will he bring to the United States and the world? It is remarkably difficult to say, for no president since Lyndon B. Johnson has come to office with so few commitments to specific policies. Updated 7:17 AM

176. China's new nationalists more aggressive toward West

     As human-rights protesters dogged the Beijing Olympics' torch relay, as supporters of Tibet condemned the violent crackdown in Lhasa, and as Darfur activists demanded change in China's Sudan policy, Chinese young people worked themselves into a different form of righteous anger. In online forums and chat rooms, they blasted Beijing's leaders for not being tougher in Tibet. They agitated for boycotts against Western businesses based in nations that object to Beijing's policies, and they directed fury against anyone critical of China. Updated 12:00 AM

177. The futility of jails

     I miss my mother today. Updated 12:00 AM

178. Fixed elections a futile gesture

     Premier Gary Doer has finally given in to academic pressure and has brought in legislation to impose fixed election dates in Manitoba. If the legislation is passed, we will have elections every four years on a fixed day in June. Updated 12:00 AM

179. A look at how mothers fare worldwide

     The Mothers' Index, compiled by the Save the Children organization, compared the status of mothers in 146 countries. Canada ranked 20th and the United States, 27 out of 41 developed nations. The individual country comparisons for