The Simpsons get dark with Trump’s first 100 days

The trolls inside the Conservative tent

The Conservative Party of Canada has a troll problem. And it’s coming from inside the tent.

Once, trolls existed only in imagination. They were figures of mythical proportion, big and small. They lived solitary lives under bridges, in caves, or forests. They were considered dim-witted and mean. Best avoided.

Today, they are real, unavoidable, and ubiquitous on social media. They are anything but solitary. There are tribes of them out there and tribal is how they think and post. As for dim-witted and mean, others can opine but they are uniformly mean and dismissive.

Mean to anyone who disagrees with their views. Dismissive of any view but their own. They distribute questionable, at best, facts and opinions grounded in hostility towards anything or anyone deemed disagreeable or heretical to their world view.

Options for selling U.S. alcohol in Canada

“Don’t buy it. Let it sit on the shelves.” — Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew

U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs of 50 per cent by Aug. 19 on over 500 Canadian items worth $28 billion. This would threaten 56,000 Canadian jobs and five per cent of our exports.

These tariffs were justified by Sec. 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. Unfortunately, Trump forgets that President Herbert Hoover signed it despite the objection of over 1,200 economists. A trade war escalated so that U.S. exports and imports both fell by two-thirds. This exacerbated the Great Depression.

A major cause for Trump’s new tariffs is supposedly the irritant that most Canadian provinces no longer sell U.S. alcohol.

‘Pie Lady’ was a straight-shooter and the life of the party

Betty Gyles went by many names over the years: Mom, Grandma, hostess — and later in life, “Pie Lady.”

Elizabeth, known as Betty to most, was born in Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood to Bill and Elizabeth Armstrong. She was the youngest child in her family, with three siblings: Bill, Bob and Barb.

Gyles grew up soaking up the sun in northwest Ontario, where her parents owned a cottage; it was there she learned to love to swim and sunbathe and sit on the “reading rock” with her sister.

Gyles would write stories and after each page was finished Betty would read them and it counted toward her summer reading goal.

Making a clear code of conduct for Winnipeg councillors

Most of us are familiar with ‘codes of conduct’.

Generally, they are sets of rules for how people are supposed to behave and act. As modern life becomes more and more complex, they have been increasingly applied in a variety of settings. Workplaces are most common, of course (usually at the behest of human resources directors), but codes of conduct also apply to the members of professional associations and volunteer organizations — from orthopedic surgeons and math teachers to youth hockey coaches and the board of directors of a local community centre.

Entire governance courses are taught on the subject, but the basic tenets of all codes of conduct are similar — people are expected to be respectful and honest in their interactions and choices, to act in good faith with the mission statements of their businesses or organizations, to respect organizational rules and to follow local laws and regulations. Most codes also prescribe processes to follow and actions to be taken if people violate the code or break the law.

It’s mostly straightforward, common-sense stuff. But, as Winnipeggers have recently been reminded in the case of Transcona city councillor Russ Wyatt, not all codes of conduct are created equal.

Frustration mounts as drug raids sweep problems out of downtown, into West End

West End business owners say their neighbourhood has been under siege for months, and some believe downtown police drug sweeps have made things worse by pushing more street disorder in their direction — and pushing customers away.