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Indigenous peoples are deeply invested in Canada

Elections Canada released a report this week that stated that, in the 2025 federal election, approximately 41 per cent of eligible First Nations, Inuit and Métis voters cast a ballot and contributed significantly to the federal Liberals and Prime Minister Mark Carney making a political comeback.

For anyone curious about how Manitoba fared, the numbers in this province were slightly lower — but still very strong, with 34 per cent participation.

This is a far cry from the highest rate of Indigenous participation in a federal election — that would be the 60 per cent who cast a ballot in 2015, when Justin Trudeau’s Liberals defeated Stephen Harper’s Conservatives — but it’s still higher than the abysmal numbers seen in decades previous.

First Nations voters have only been allowed the legal right to cast a ballot in Canadian elections since 1960, but many in the past — perhaps rightly — felt a sense of complicity in the country’s colonization or, worse, that voting didn’t make a difference.

Take advantage of hydroelectric potential

Manitoba Hydro tells us that we are going to need significant new electricity generation over the coming decades.

Training basket

J.J. ROSS, 41

Phys-ed and health coordinator for the St. James School Division

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: One day, J.J. Ross turned 37 and realized his lifestyle needed an overhaul. A dad of three, sons aged 9 and 6 and daughter aged 4, Ross knew good health was in his best interest and for his family.

Volunteer helps keep Nellie McClung’s legacy alive

Growing up with ties to the community of Manitou, Gillian Potvin has found great inspiration in the traces of Nellie McClung’s legacy.

The 39-year-old has spent nearly a decade channelling that inspiration back into the community by being a key part of the Nellie McClung Museum of Canada’s marketing and events planning since it opened at 55 Main St., in the southern Manitoba town in 2017.

Utilizing her skills in marketing and digital design for the museum is her way of thanking the woman who fought for the rights she has today and continuing her legacy.

“She helped women to be identified as persons and that’s huge,” she said of the woman born in 1873 and considered one of Canada’s most prominent suffragists. “It’s easy to take for granted some of these rights we now have as women, but there would have been a big fight back in the day to change the things that have always been.”

‘You vote with your bike’: cyclists celebrate freedoms, call for increased safety

Patty Wiens got dressed up in her sparkly, hot pink cowboy boots to pedal and talk politics with more than 100 other people on Sunday.

The founder of Winnipeg’s Fancy Women Bike Ride called on attendees of the 2026 event to ask candidates in the upcoming civic election — a half-dozen of whom were in attendance — about their active transportation platforms.

“We’re here today, in an election year, to remind you that you vote with your bike,” Wiens told a crowd of nearly 120 cyclists gathered on the legislature grounds for the group ride.

“When (city council) candidates come to your door and ask what’s important to you, you’re going to say, ‘I want to ride my bike safely in the city. What are you going to do about it?’”