Nickle’s collection dark, complex

‘He was shaping a generation of young artists’: Winnipeg director Rob Herriot has died at 60

Herriot was well known for his work within opera and musical theatre in Winnipeg and across North America. He died Friday at 60 years old. Loved ones described his death as sudden, and the cause had not yet been determined Sunday.

Nickle’s collection dark, complex

Prolific genre-bending author David Nickle's second story collection, Knife Fight and Other Struggles, is horrifying, funny, weird and wonderfully written, all at once.

Knife Fight is Nickle's fifth book since 2009. The Toronto-based author also works as a journalist and was one of many reporters covering municipal politics at the very height of the Rob Ford chaos -- likely inspiration for the collection's title story.

In Knife Fight, a big-city mayor settles policy disputes every Thursday night in the city hall underground parkade in a one-on-one knife fight. His weapon of choice is a bowie knife he pulled from a tree in his family's yard, King Arthur-style. The story is satirical enough to warrant some chuckles, but it's also fierce and sobering.

Other highlights include Looker, whose basic idea is similar to the Stephen King story I Am the Doorway, but is taken in a new and interesting direction by Nickle.

Manitoba Tories can learn from Poilievre’s mistake

Among the many errors made by Pierre Poilievre since becoming leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, his decision to attempt to persuade supporters of Max Bernier’s People’s Party and other right-wing groups to return to the Tory party ­— as opposed to adopting policies that would make the CPC more attractive to moderate Canadians — may be his greatest mistake.

By pandering to that small group of voters, Poilievre alienated a much larger group of centrist voters who would have otherwise considered voting for Conservative Party candidates in the 2025 federal election. Instead, those voters found the pro-Canadian, fiscally and socially moderate platform offered by Mark Carney’s Liberals to be more attractive, resulting in the humiliating defeat of the Conservatives.

The situation for the federal Tories has worsened since then, with the Liberals continuing to hold a large lead in public opinion polls and Carney leading Poilievre by almost 30 points on the “preferred prime minister” question. Those same polls also reveal that many Conservative voters approve of the Liberal government’s performance and prefer Carney over Poilievre as PM.

Despite all of those numbers — and all the evidence that pushing policies designed to attract the right-wing fringe of the political spectrum is making it all but impossible for the CPC to have any realistic hope of winning the next election — Poilievre continues to rely on the same caustic rhetoric that cost his party the 2025 election. If anything, he has turned up the volume lately, with his efforts increasingly resembling a political suicide mission.

Struggling retailer Toys ‘R’ Us to shutter Transcona store

Playtime is almost over at the Toys “R” Us store in Winnipeg’s Transcona neighbourhood.

Signs hanging in the front windows indicate the longtime big-box chain outlet is closing. “All stock reduced” and “Everything must go” at the store, which has stood at 1560 Regent Ave. W. for more than 36 years. Even the fixtures are for sale.

An employee at the store declined to comment on Monday, directing the Free Press to Toys “R” Us Canada Ltd.’s head office. The company did not respond to interview requests.

Signage at the store does not specify when it will close for good.

City seeks to have Manwin suit tossed

The City of Winnipeg says the claims made by the owner of the Manwin Hotel, in a lawsuit filed after the dilapidated Main Street property was destroyed by fire this year, are baseless.

Lawyers for the city have filed papers that seek to have the suit by Akim Kambamba thrown out.

The suit, filed in the Court of King’s Bench in the spring, seeks $15 million, plus court costs, over the Jan. 14 fire in the vacant hotel at 655 Main St., which has since been demolished.

The company accused the city of breaching its duty to it and wrongfully evicting the tenants, who had been ordered out owing to numerous safety concerns last year.

Letters, July 7

Thank you to the Hooks and Needles group for their knit and crocheted items that they donate. I am a senior and I knit scarves at home that are donated to Koats for Kids every fall. Last year I donated 222 scarves and am on track to beat that total this year.