Big spender needs change of habit

Kinew’s message for PM: don’t back down

Let it be known that when Canada’s provinces and alcohol industries needed a defender, Canada’s first First Nations provincial premier was their greatest warrior.

This is, admittedly, a provocative opening line — referencing historical and cultural intersections and relying on a stereotype or two.

It’s impossible, however, not to see how important the nearly Canada-wide provincial-led ban on the sale of U.S. alcohol is to Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.

It’s due to his stand on national matters like these that he’s become very popular — according to polls, the most popular premier in Canada — and has been empowered to take on the mantle of one of the captains of “Team Canada” on economic, political and domestic issues.

Finish summer strong with these fun, relaxing options

Late summer can feel neither here nor there.

As on a Sunday night, a certain back-to-school or -work melancholy sets in. The big Manitoba festivals have come and gone. You’re starting to take a reckoning of all the craft beer and food-truck calories you’ve sopped up for two months, without having done as much hiking, canoeing or yard work as you promised yourself.

The wind begins breathing threats of fall, but the golden colours, jack-o’- lanterns and corn mazes aren’t here yet to reassure you of fall’s dusky pleasures. Instead, on a perfect 22 C day, you find yourself having flashbacks of Winnipeg winter nights colder than Mars.

Are we being overly depressing? Absolutely.

ER wait times have hit all-time highs in Winnipeg and are impacting nearly all aspects of hospital operations

On most days at Health Sciences Centre’s adult emergency department, all 58 treatment beds are filled with sick patients. Another dozen or so brought in by ambulance line the hallways on stretchers, with only one nurse to look after them.

Out in the waiting room, about 30 or 40 people — sometimes more — are slouched in chairs in pain or discomfort, waiting hours to see a doctor. Most have been assessed by a triage nurse, but many will have to wait 10 to 20 hours to be examined by a physician because there’s no room for them in the treatment area.

Some patients leave because they can no longer tolerate the excruciating wait, only to return days later, sicker than they were before.

Welcome to the emergency department at Manitoba’s largest hospital, where some of the highest-acuity patients seek medical care but now face delays that were unimaginable a few years ago.

NDP touts health-care gains, but critics question impact on ER wait times

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara doesn’t mince words when describing how bad things are in the province’s emergency departments and urgent-care centres.

“The wait times that we are seeing in Manitoba are unacceptable,” said Asagwara in an interview with the Free Press.

“I hear from families, I hear from providers, I hear from Manitobans who are concerned about the wait times that they’re seeing, that they’re experiencing, and those concerns are valid — I share those concerns.”

So what is the NDP, who promised voters nearly three years ago it had the answers to bring down wait times, doing about it?

Five-way tie for first means Manitoba Open is still up for grabs

Garrison Smith isn’t sure why he’s playing the best golf of his life up in Canada this summer.

But the 26-year-old Texan has a very tasty theory.

“You know, I did have poutine here (Thursday) night. And I had some in New Brunswick, too,” Smith said Friday as he grabbed a share of the lead at the midway point of the Manitoba Open at Elmhurst.

He may be on to something.

Transit union pleads for full shields after near ‘hijacking situation’

The union representing Winnipeg Transit drivers says the need for full safety shields is critical after an operator was threatened with a hatchet early Thursday.