Unique concert a ‘cinematic musical circus’ close to home

Who will win? Most voters haven’t decided yet

Just over a month before Winnipeg voters choose their next mayor, the most striking number in the latest polling isn’t Scott Gillingham’s lead.

It’s the 51 per cent of voters who still haven’t decided who they’re going to vote for.

That is an enormous chunk of the electorate to have sitting on the sidelines this late in a municipal campaign. And while it may make the current standings look more uncertain than they otherwise would, it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise.

Winnipeg municipal elections have not been models of voter engagement in recent years. Turnout has been falling — from 50 per cent in 2014 to 42 per cent in 2018 and just 37.5 per cent in 2022.

AC/DC leaves Winnipeg crowd thunderstruck

AC/DC proved once again that rock ‘n’ roll ain’t noise pollution.

A rowdy stadium of about 35,000 people at Princess Auto Stadium couldn’t agree more as the Australian rock legends made their first trip to the city since 2015 on their PWR/UP tour, cranking out two hours and 20 minutes of raw and raunchy high-voltage material, a mix of blues, crunchy power chords, melodic riffs and double entendres that spanned five decades.

Their wide-ranging appeal was apparent in the demographic makeup of the crowd, which ranged from young children to seniors, many clad in $30 glowing devil horns from the well-stocked merch booth that also offered posters, banners, beer koozies, lanyards, tour books and T-shirts.

There is no one in music quite like guitar god Angus Young. He is 71, but onstage he is ageless, a hyperactive teenager dressed in his signature blue schoolboy uniform and yellow and blue cap, running around, duck-walking and leaping in the air while cranking out riff after riff and extended solos on his trusty black Gibson SG.

North and east to Hudson Bay: Port Nelson

Who in Canada doesn’t like the beaver? It’s a Canadian symbol that represents hard work and ingenuity and using the resources around you to build up what you need.

Western Canada was largely opened because of the value of a rodent.

From the 1600s on, it was the trading of beaver pelts for European goods that helped raise everyone’s standard of living. Two historic figures, Samuel Hearne and Matonabee, (who first met each other by accident west of Hudson Bay) epitomized this new era.

‘Sam’ came with the Hudson Bay Company to make profit for the investors, and ‘Mat,’ a chief of the Dene people, led young Sam across the west to introduce trade with his colleagues in the Athabaskan country. Mat became well known for his “portable trading posts” that he brought across the west.

Driver of stolen vehicle facing impairment, other charges after fatal high-speed crash in West Kildonan Sunday

A 19-year-old man faces impaired driving and other charges after a crash involving a stolen vehicle in north Winnipeg killed a 20-year-old woman and another left another woman with life-threatening injuries.

Winnipeg artist’s solo exhibition invites viewers on a disorienting, rewarding journey

Ryan Smoluk’s Maze City, on now at WAG-Qaumajuq, is a full circle moment.

The Winnipeg visual artist took art classes as a kid at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, his work first exhibited there as part of Through the Eyes of a Child.

Since then, his art — informed by his perspectives and experiences as an artist with autism — has been exhibited internationally, and Smoluk has worked with the United Nations, the New York Stock Exchange, Apple, the Manitoba Government, Manitoba Opera Society, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and a host of others.

And now, his work is back on the walls of the WAG, this time in his first solo exhibition at the city’s largest gallery.