Even up the situation in one-sided love affair

Board game company charts winning path

Dennis Northcott has launched a game without frontiers.

The Winnipeg entrepreneur is the co-designer of Galactic Cruise, a board game published last year by Kinson Key Games LLC, the business he co-founded. Since its release, Galactic Cruise has been translated into 11 languages and sold around 50,000 copies worldwide.

It’s also one of three finalists for this year’s Deutsche Spiele Preis, a prestigious community-voted board game award. Northcott will travel to Essen, Germany, later this month, where the winner will be announced at Spiel Essen, an annual board game trade fair.

“It’s been amazing,” Northcott said of the response to Galactic Cruise during an interview in his Island Lakes neighbourhood home earlier this week. “The sales have been great, but it’s also been amazing in terms of people giving their reviews.”

Khan should’ve taken high road: Goertzen

The veteran Progressive Conservative who championed Obby Khan’s leadership bid says the former Blue Bomber dropped the ball by dissing his Tory teammates before he stepped down.

“I wouldn’t recommend it, and I didn’t recommend it,” Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach) said in an interview Friday.

Khan resigned as PC leader and quit the caucus Monday saying some members were secretly plotting his ouster, even after he won a confidence vote on Sept. 25.

On Tuesday, Khan lashed out in a CJOB interview, naming the alleged plotters, saying constituents deserved to know which of their elected representatives “lacked moral integrity.” Khan told the Free Press he was “deeply emotionally hurt,” and felt stabbed in the back.

Volunteer pop-up library axed from Manitoba Youth Centre

Manitoba Corrections has cancelled a pop-up library program at the Manitoba Youth Centre, leaving inmates without librarian services and fewer options to borrow certain books.

The Prison Libraries Committee, part of the non-profit Manitoba Library Association, operated and funded the volunteer program since 2024 before it was shut down by the province last month. The group previously partnered with the province to offer the service because the facility has no dedicated library of its own.

“It is concerning that community members who are incarcerated, especially youth, are losing out on meaningful programming, access to information and rehabilitation efforts, which are offered at no cost to (Manitoba) Corrections. We urge Manitoba Justice to promote more library services and programming, not less,” said a Sept. 24 letter from the non-profit addressed to the justice minister.

Ashley Huot, chair of the Prison Libraries Committee, said she was puzzled when she received an email last month from Manitoba Corrections stating that the pop-up library was no longer needed.

J’accuse!: Kinew uses French to fry interim Tory leader over alleged caucus subterfuge

NDP Premier Wab Kinew took a dig at the Progressive Conservatives’ leadership change while facing off with Obby Khan’s short-term replacement for the first time in question period Thursday.

Health minister warns $1.2 billion in annual federal funding set to expire in March

Manitoba’s health minister is warning of possible cuts to health care with $1.2 billion in annual funding from Ottawa set to expire next year.

“We’re very concerned that what would be the largest cut to health care in a generation is right in front of us,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Thursday at the Manitoba legislature. “It means that services that Manitobans depend on will be in jeopardy and be at risk.

“Any reductions, any cuts from Canada, will have direct impacts on the health outcomes of Manitobans.”

Asagwara, who serves as the provincial and territorial health minister lead, chaired a virtual meeting Tuesday with provincial and territorial health ministers to discuss federal funding for health care, mental health care and substance use services, which is scheduled to expire March 31, 2027.