Winnipeg Comedy Festival weekend lineup

Downtown Keg closes… to reopen nearby

Downtown Winnipeg is without a Keg restaurant — for a couple of months, anyways.

The Keg Steakhouse and Bar vacated 115 Garry St. on Wednesday, after more than five decades at the location. It will open in a new Donald Street apartment tower this fall.

Its move comes after years of waiting. The DSM, at 185 Donald St., sat as a partially started apartment block after its developer stopped operating and sought creditor protection in April 2023. The developer began the project in 2019.

Carrington Real Estate took over in 2024. Part of the 14-storey site’s initial plans — pre-Carrington — was for the Keg to occupy the main floor.

TV with kick, secrets, rebellion and green rings

Deep into a summer with endless-seeming heat waves, squadrons of both mosquitoes and dragonflies, and a dearth of insect repellent, here is a richly varied smorgasbord of TV, new and returning, to illuminate your shade-darkened viewing spaces. Also, remember to hydrate.

• Ted Lasso (Season 4 premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on Apple TV)

It’s the return of the nice guy, the can-do guy, the BELIEVE guy! But enough of that feel-good stuff. There are questions to be answered when the soccer-is-life series returns! How and why does Ted (Jason Sudeikis) leave the U.S. to go back to the U.K. to coach the AFC Richmond women’s team after having quit the Richmond men’s team at the end of Season 3? What fresh stories will the show come up with to avoid a female rewind of the first three seasons, good as those stories were? And finally how will Hannah Waddington gear down from the fun assassin role in Prime Video’s excellent new series Ride or Die back to the buttoned-down AFC team owner Rebecca Welton? Shall we all find out together?

• The Shards (series premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on FX, and the next day on Disney+/Hulu)

Giant Tiger decision creates giant void for desperate population

A lot of Winnipeggers may shrug, but the end of Giant Tiger’s downtown store is a giant problem for many of the people living in the centre of the city.

It would have been difficult for anyone going into or passing by the Canadian discount chain’s Donald Street and Ellice Avenue location Thursday to miss the red notices posted on the store’s windows advising it will close on Nov. 7.

According to a 2024 Downtown Winnipeg BIZ report, about 18,000 people live in Winnipeg’s downtown.

More than 60,000 people work there, and some days — when there’s a big concert or the Jets play at Canada Life Centre, for example — the number of people spending time in the area increases significantly.

Ticked off by Trump’s tantrums

U.S. President Donald Trump recently threatened tariffs on Canadian products for the wildfire smoke that wafts across the border.

WestJet, CUPE reach tentative deal as passengers scramble amid flight disruptions

CALGARY - WestJet and the union representing some 4,400 flight attendants reached a tentative deal Monday to resume work after a brief work stoppage, but neither side is sharing specifics yet.

The airline had said Sunday it had proposed a 13 per cent pay increase starting in October, and then a 2.5 per cent increase in each of the next three years until 2029.

The airline also said it offered a new duty pay premium, equivalent to another 12 per cent salary increase, which WestJet said is designed to solve the cabin crew's claim of unpaid work.

In a news conference in Calgary on Monday, CUPE local 8125 president Alia Hussain said the flight attendants have 30 days to ratify the agreement, and the union will spend the coming days preparing a slide show to present to the members.