Nutcracker delivers seasonal delight

Canada vows dollar-for-dollar tariff retaliation, suspends trade talks with U.S.

OTTAWA - A last-ditch effort to reach a new trade deal before a midnight tariff deadline failed Friday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended talks with the United States and summoned his negotiators back to Ottawa.

The decision meant new 50 per cent tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian exports to the U.S. took effect at 12:01 a.m., and Carney vowed Canada would retaliate with equal measures of its own.

"In recent weeks, we made important progress toward improving Canada's position as having the best deal in the world with the U.S.," Carney said in a statement just before Trump's tariff deadline.

"However, that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians."

Executive exodus continues at Shared Health with three recent departures

Manitoba’s provincial health authority is looking for its fourth chief financial officer since 2023 and additional replacements after the recent departures of three executives.

Five Things: PM Carney explains why Canada left the U.S. negotiating table

OTTAWA - Canada is preparing to hit the U.S. with dollar-for-dollar tariffs in response to new 50 per cent duties on $28 billion worth of Canadian products that took effect when talks between the two nations collapsed as negotiations neared the finish line. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney was quiet publicly during the final days of negotiations, but now has now explained his rationale for telling the Canadian negotiating team, led by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and chief negotiator Janice Charette, to leave the table.

Restrictions on further trade deals

"The U.S. Introduced at the last hours, in the last hours, efforts to restrict our ability to have other trade deals. You heard me say a moment ago, what we've accomplished in the past year, 20 new deals, economic and security partnerships, the prospect of doubling our market access because we believe in free trade. We're the partner of choice in many respects for countries around the world and the Americans wanted to restrict that. They had language that what they wanted to restrict that, unacceptable," Carney said during a press conference on Parliament Hill.

Nutcracker delivers seasonal delight

Great lords a-leaping! You know the festive season is in full swing when the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's sparkling Nutcracker lights up the stage each year.

The eight-show production that opened this weekend and runs until Dec. 28 has become an annual holiday rite as much beloved as yuletide carols and eggnog. Set in 1913, the full-length story ballet tells the tale of 12-year-old Clara, a wide-eyed innocent who enters a fantastical world in which her carved nutcracker doll transforms into a dashing prince while she becomes the fairytale ballerina of her dreams.

Performed en pointe, the classical ballet choreographed by Galina Yordanova and Nina Menon is also quintessentially Canadian, infused with games of street hockey, snow angels, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and furry busby hats with all costumes designed by Paul Daigle. Every so often, the 124-minute (including intermission) work that premièred in 1999 is spruced up with winsome new characters, such as rosy-cheeked cherubs added a few years ago. This time around, 12 adorable (albeit somewhat stage-struck) polar bear cubs culled from the RWB School Recreational Division elicited audible oohs and ahs as they waved their paws to the delighted audience.

RWB music director Tadeusz Biernacki ably led the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra through Tchaikovsky's iconic score with special guests, the Winnipeg Children's Choir's (alternating with the Winnipeg Boys' Choir and Winnipeg Girls' Choir) sweet voices wafting from the orchestra pit during Act I's Magical Forest scene.

Roadside giants towering symbols of Canada’s quirkiness

Could you imagine a Canada without Mr. PG repping Prince George, B.C.? Or the Big Nickel in Sudbury? Or, my personal favourite, Happy Rock in Gladstone?

Earlier this summer, CBC’s Cost of Living looked at the economics of these giant roadside attractions — of which there are more than 1,500 in Canada — and the cost of keeping them.

Some are falling into disrepair — this is why public art funding is necessary, by the way, not just for construction, but maintenance — and some towns are weighing whether or not that money is better spent elsewhere.

The main character of the story: Tyra the Tyrannosaurus, the rather literal symbol of Drumheller, Alta., a.k.a. the Dinosaur Capital of the World since 2000, who could be facing extinction after the lease agreement between the town and the Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce ends in 2029.