Your forecast
A mix of sun and cloud with a 60 per cent chance of showers or thunderstorms. Widespread smoke this morning. Wind from the southeast at 20 km/h. High 25 C. Humidex 30. UV index 8 or very high.
Precipitation that’s in the forecast early this week could help crews fighting wildfires that have been threatening a northern Manitoba city after smoke that’s blanketed much of the Prairies over the weekend kept some firefighting aircraft grounded and forced the cancellation of a number of weekend events.
In an update posted to social media on Sunday, the City of Thompson said rain was forecast for the area on Monday as the community continues to advise residents to be ready to flee at short notice due to several fires. The Canadian Press reports.
Wildfire evacuees outside of the primary evacuation reception centre at the Leila Soccer Complex in Winnipeg earlier this month. (David Lipnowski / The Canadian Press files)
What’s happening today
School is out, and cranky bus driver Ed Crankshaft is headed on a road trip — to Winnipeg.
Crankshaft and his son-in-law Jeff Murdoch — who for the better part of the last decade has sported Winnipeg Blue Bombers sweatshirts and tuques in the Crankshaft comic strip — are set to begin a daily month-long story arc where they visit the Manitoba capital to see a football game.
The story begins today and can be read in the Free Press and nearly 500 other newspapers. Kevin Rollason has more here.
A year after the Ohio-based Crankshaft comic creator and avid Blue Bomber fan visited the city, Tom Batiuk is launching his characters into a month-long road trip to Winnipeg. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)
Today’s must-read
Amid hazy skies and a severe air quality warning blanketing most of the province, the Manitoba Stampede & Exhibition raced ahead with its events, despite the risk wildfire smoke poses to competitors and animals.
In front of a nearly sold-out crowd all weekend, cowboys and cowgirls competed in chuckwagon racing, bareback riding and steer wrestling while smoke from wildfires raging in northern Manitoba hung in the air above the grandstand in Morris.
“If it got bad enough, we take the welfare of the stock primarily into concern: the cowboys, competitors, everybody,” Mike Bellisle, president of the Valley Agricultural Society, said on Sunday afternoon. Nicole Buffie has the story.
Traci MacDonald won the barrel racing competition at the Manitoba Stampede & Exhibition in Morris Sunday. (John Woods / Free Press)
On the bright side
Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans can trade in foam fingers and cowbells for a hammer to help build a home for a family in need this fall.
Habitat for Humanity Manitoba and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will team up Oct. 1 and 2 to host the first Bombers House Build, where volunteers will help build a house for a low-income family alongside players from the football club.
“It’s another opportunity for people to help and engage in the community,” said Christa Mariash, spokesperson for Habitat. “You work on a football team to win the game and you work on a team to build a house. We just thought it was a perfect fit.” Massimo De Luca-Taronno has the story.
Holly Jefferson (left) and members of the Bombers Women’s Club work on a Habitat for Humanity house in Transcona last week. (Supplied)
On this date
On July 21, 1923: The Manitoba Free Press reported a plan was announced at the annual show of the Cartright Agricultural Society to consolidate rural fairs in Manitoba to create greater rivalry and more incentive for people to attend the exhibitions. In London at the World’s Congress of Surgeons, a French doctor described Canadian Dr. F.G. Banting’s co-discovery of insulin as “epoch-making,” and compared its influence on mankind to the work of Louis Pasteur. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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