On the NightTable

Indigenous leaders meet with Governor General during first official visit to Manitoba

Three Indigenous leaders were encouraged after discussing reconciliation and the need to confront residential school denialism with Gov. Gen. Louise Arbour, while she began her first official visit to Manitoba Wednesday.

All sideshow, little substance

Well, there’s one thing that can be said about Winnipeg’s 2026 mayoral race that sets it apart from most previous campaigns for city council’s top position:

It isn’t boring.

In most civic elections, the power of incumbency and/or familiarity gives one mayoral candidate such a profound advantage that the outcome is all but a foregone conclusion and the lead-up to voting day becomes both uninteresting and largely irrelevant.

This year’s race, to the contrary, has been noteworthy for the unusual level of friction, controversy and mud-slinging that has been injected into the early part of the campaign.

On the NightTable

Dr. Yvonne Myal

University of Manitoba breast cancer researcher and YWCA Woman of Distinction

"I just finished The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, a university professor diagnosed with terminal cancer in the prime of his life. It's a very moving and inspiring read. I am currently reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. It is the true story of a woman, 60 years ago, whose cervical cancer cells were removed by her doctors and immortalized, without her knowledge. These 'HeLa cells,' as they are known today, can now be found in many research laboratories throughout the world, including my own. It is a fascinating story. I also like browsing through my two favourite magazines, Canadian Living and Chatelaine. I find this relaxing and I get a lot of good recipes and health and wellness tips, too."

Israeli election once again up for grabs

The next general election in Israel will be held on Oct. 27. Needless to say, like most elections in the country’s modern and fraught history since 1948, it is a critical contest between right and left, secular and orthodox, and left, moderate, right and extreme.

Also, given Israel’s complex proportional representative political system, which allocates a seat in its 120-seat Knesset (parliament) for winning only 3.25 per cent of the national vote, this election is nearly impossible to predict.

Even before 1948, Israelis’ ardent faith in democracy, their differing points of view and penchant for arguing led to the establishment of a multitude of political parties representing a smorgasbord of almost every conceivable position on the political spectrum.

Because no political party has ever won the 61 seats required to form a majority government, the major parties have frequently had to rely on fringe parties to hold power.