Debbie Patterson named PTE artistic associate

Cool yourself, not your car: time to stop denying climate change

The magnitude of climate change denial slapped me in the face in — of all places — the grassy parking lots at the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Back for a visit to see my daughter and hear some live music, I found myself weaving through row upon row of vehicles stacked on the hard-packed fields of Birds Hill park, east of the main Folk Festival site.

We had strategically parked at the far east end of that lot to avoid being caught in the crush of fans trying to leave after the last show. Unfortunately, that made a simple trip back to the car to restock on sunscreen a bit of a hike.

It was early afternoon, and so hot that it admittedly it was hard to breathe. The weather app on my phone claimed it was 39 C and I had no reason to doubt it. As I snaked my way though the cars, I started to notice something remarkable: several of the cars I was passing were idling.

Fringe reviews #1: Choose your fighter, then your venue

Absolutely not a cult, Afeni, #Black Eye, Chekov Shorts, Fakespeare, The Ghost of a Flea, A Sexy Pigeon Show, The Shelter, Things That Go Bump, Viento.

Fringe reviews #2: No cheat codes required

Dangerous Curves, Elon Muskrat, Evolution of a Broken Heart, Fool's Gambit, Hair Brained, Happy Valley, Lies of a Promiscuous Woman, Mr. Loopy Pants, Pete Seeger Tribute, Tymisha Harris

The next Duff’s Ditch must be medical

A runaway rail trolley hurtles towards five people tied to the tracks. You stand at the switch lever. If you pull the lever, the trolley veers onto a sidetrack, where one person is tied down. Do nothing and five die. Pull the lever and one dies by your hand.

A health minister needs no introduction to the weight of that choice. Every budget season, governments confront this dilemma with one cruel modification — the lever switches between today and tomorrow. Down the near track sits this year’s emergency, a crowded emergency department, a surgical backlog, a crisis demanding a decision by Friday. Down the far track, in the distance, over the horizon, waits a geriatric demographic that has not arrived yet. Each year’s budget cannot simultaneously rescue both.

Philosophers treat the trolley scenario as a thought experiment. A health minister calls it Tuesday.

The actual choice is crueller, because both tracks hold real people. The stroke patient in today’s hallway deserves rescue, as do the patients down the line. Two scholars, Guido Calabresi and Philip Bobbitt, analyzed such allocations as tragic choices — scarcity forces a society to preserve one value by sacrificing another. Their darker observation concerned method. Societies rarely make these choices in the open. The lever keeps directing traffic away from the immediate noise, toward the far track.

PCs cleared of election violation for ‘intimacy coach’ invoice

Manitoba’s elections commissioner has cleared the Progressive Conservatives of wrongdoing after a $3,800 expense for a car rental appeared on an invoice from a company offering “intimacy coach” services.

The findings from the commissioner bring an end to a complaint raised by the NDP in October 2024, when it was alleged the PCs violated the Election Financing Act by forging financial documents related to the previous year’s election campaign.

“I am satisfied that the expense was indeed for a car rental, as the invoice described,” Bill Bowles wrote in a letter addressed to both parties Wednesday.

Concerns over the invoice to Lucid Vitality were first raised by a former PC staffer, whose internal emails with party officials were published in the Winnipeg Sun.

Winnipeg Beach vinyl boutique helps lake-goers get in the groove

Carlson Teakle is the owner of Beachside Vinyl, a 400-square-foot shop located at 18 Main St., a (Rolling) stone’s throw away from the shores of Lake Winnipeg. The 53-year-old father of four and grandfather of two admits to having fielded the question, “Why Winnipeg Beach?” a number of times since his grand opening earlier this year. His stock reply: why not Winnipeg Beach?