Open house, open government

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This article was published 04/12/2016 (3541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Forget partisan blue and orange. Saturday, red and green took over as the Manitoba legislature hosted its festive open house.

During the annual event, people were invited to tour the Christmas-decorated building, meet with MLAs and learn more about the provincial government.

Santa hats bobbed through the crowd of a few hundred people while different musical acts — including the Murdoch MacKay Collegiate jazz band, Sisters by Choice, Honeycomb: Sweet Adelines ladies a cappella quartet, Wing and a Prayer, Colleen Furlan and the MLA choir led by Speaker Myrna Driedger — performed on the legislative building’s grand staircase. Ross the Magician and Art City craft tables entertained kids. Fort Rouge MLA Wab Kinew wore a bright green Rudolph sweater. Children in sparkling holidays dresses and suits waited for candy canes and photos with Progressive Conservative Premier Brian Pallister as eagerly as they would to see Santa at the mall.

Pallister acted the part of Santa Claus, shaking hands, giving hugs and posing for photos in front of an elaborately decorated Christmas tree. When the jolly old elf himself stopped by, the premier took a break from the long line of people winding outside his chambers to meet and take a photo with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

“Merry Christmas, everybody,” Pallister said in his opening comments.

“We live in the most beautiful province in the most beautiful country in the world. This time of year, I think it’s very important to remind each other of how many blessings we have.”

For some, Helen Counanes said, those blessings include a stable government. The former St. James-Assiniboia School Division teacher has hosted international students for the last 12 years. This year, she brought the two boys staying with her to the open house.

“I’m here to learn another culture… and see how it is here in Canada,” Paulo Souza said.

The 16-year-old Sturgeon Heights Collegiate student said he came to Winnipeg from Brazil four months ago and wanted to see how Manitoba’s government differs from Brazil’s.

Counanes said it’s especially important for people who might have unstable governments back home to see how governments can work.

“They need to know some of our laws and what’s allowed, and then they can compare what their governments are like,” she said.

“They’ll get a chance, hopefully, to see what a stable government is and how welcoming it is, because we’re a multicultural community here. We’re all the same.”

Thirteen-year-old Jordi Ecriva Estevan, the other student staying with Counanes, will return home to Valencia, Spain a few days before Christmas, but both boys will get to experience some local holiday traditions. Counanes said they’ll take part in an early Greek Christmas and gift exchange, and Paulo will celebrate his birthday later this month and see traditional Epiphany celebrations in the new year.

“They get the whole gamut,” Counanes said, smiling.

Locals learned more about the provincial government, too. Tour guides explained the purposes of different rooms and the architectural styles of the building itself.

“Usually, everything is locked up. Not today,” one woman on a tour said.

“Today, it’s all transparency.”

danielle.doiron@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @dmdoiron