On the night table

Almost 250 people moved from city encampments under provincial strategy

Nearly 250 people have moved out of Winnipeg encampments under the Manitoba government’s Your Way Home strategy, which is more than 70 per cent of the NDP’s goal for its first term in office.

Decrease in crime an inconvenient truth for Poilievre

Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives have apparently decided that facts are an obstacle to their crime narrative.

Pointing fingers and shifting blame

More often than not, it seems the city is willing to pass the buck upwards to the provincial government — while also being equally willing to download it onto individual home and business owners.

Sweet sendoff for apprentice jockey

Three outside smoothies and a crunchy ride up the rail in the $40,000 Frank Arnason Sire Stakes on Tuesday vaulted apprentice jockey Ciera Pruitt into the top 10 at Assiniboia Downs for the first time this year.

The crunch came first. And she won’t be here much longer.

Pruitt led all jockeys on the week with four victories, the first coming aboard Manitoba-bred Bromeo in the 39th running of the Frank Arnason, for her mother, trainer Lise Pruitt. Bromeo and Pruitt duelled from the inside throughout and prevailed after a long, tight drive up the rail to take home the $24,000 winner’s share of the purse for longtime owner/breeder Barry Arnason.

“I just got really lucky, honestly,” said Pruitt. “Everything kind of fell into my hands. God was looking after me this week and it all worked out in my favour.”

On the night table: Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay

Author, Written on the Dark

I often give shout outs to authors I’ve loved, not so much authors I’ve just read — but I’ve just read Karen Russell’s new novel The Antidote, which is being talked up as a potential Pulitzer Prize winner. And I enjoyed that.

I love Patrick Modiano, the French Nobel Prize Laureate; I think he’s a sorcerer as a writer. I love Penelope Fitzgerald, the English writer — A.S. Byatt said she’s the greatest English writer since the Second World War, which is pretty hyperbolic, but anybody who gets that said about them has something going for them.

Soccer facility gets $750K from province for upgrades

With Winnipeg’s first professional women’s team waiting in the wings, the province is spending $750,000 to upgrade the Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex.

The funding will help replace the outdoor field pitch and lighting system to ensure it can host high-level sporting events, the province said at a press confererence Friday at the south Winnipeg facility.

Earlier this month, it was announced Winnipeg will be the seventh franchise in the Northern Super League with the as yet unnamed team co-founded by former national team player Desiree Scott and longtime coach Rob Gale.

While there has been no official announcement, it’s presumed the team will play at the complex, which currently seats about 2,000.