Three-time Stanley Cup winner Jonathan Toews ends his NHL career as a Winnipeg Jet

WINNIPEG - Jonathan Toews announced his retirement Friday, bringing the curtain down on a decorated NHL career that included three Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals and a comeback season with his hometown Winnipeg Jets.

The 38-year-old centre returned to the NHL in 2025-26 after a two-year absence related to Chronic Immune Response Syndrome and long COVID, recording 11 goals and 18 assists while appearing in all 82 games for Winnipeg.

Toews spent 15 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, captaining the franchise to Stanley Cup titles in 2010, 2013 and 2015 while winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2010.

He finished his NHL career with 383 goals and 529 assists in 1,149 regular-season games and was recognized as one of the league's premier two-way forwards.

Support for Lewis-led federal NDP moves ahead of Tories in some Winnipeg suburbs, poll reveals

The federal New Democratic Party under new leadership is seeing a resurgence in Winnipeg, and has jumped past the Conservatives in some suburban neighbourhoods, new polling data says.

A Free Press-Probe Research poll released this week found that Liberals have the support of 54 per cent of the voters surveyed in Winnipeg, down marginally from 55 per cent in March. Support for the NDP jumped to 16 per cent, up from 10 per cent in March.

The Conservative party has lost some ground in the city — 26 per cent of those surveyed said they’d vote for the party if an election “was held tomorrow,” down from 32 per cent last month, and the lowest percentage in more than two years.

Across Manitoba, NDP support jumped from eight per cent in March to 14 per cent. Conservatives were down four points from 39 per cent in March and Liberal support rose to 47 per cent from 46 per cent.

Longtime city councillor Orlikow to leave politics

Coun. John Orlikow will not run for re-election in his River Heights-Fort Garry ward.

The councillor announced in a Friday morning news release he will not seek another term in the Oct. 28 municipal election.

“It has been an honour serving in elected office and political life for nearly three decades and now it’s time for a new adventure,” Orlikow said in the release.

He spent 10 years as a trustee for the Winnipeg School Division before being elected to represent River Heights-Fort Garry at city hall in a 2009 byelection. He has been re-elected in each municipal election since.

Record number of hail-damage claims could reach 40,000 after June storms: MPI

22,000 claims — almost all for hail damage and 80 per cent of them from Winnipeg — received as of Thursday morning.

Canada routs Qatar 6-0 for historic first win at FIFA World Cup

VANCOUVER - Add another moment to Canadian sports history.

Striker Jonathan David snapped a scoring drought by striking three goals to lead Canada to its first-ever FIFA World Cup victory with a 6-0 decision over Qatar Thursday before a boisterous sellout crowd at BC Place Stadium.

“It’s historical, obviously,” said the 26-year-old who had not found the back of the net in his four previous World Cup matches despite being Canada’s leading goal-scorer. “It’s our first win ever in World Cup, and to do it in this fashion was very good.”

Head coach Jesse Marsch said the win will be etched in Canadian’s minds, like Sidney Crosby’s golden goal at the 2010 Winter Olympics or Mike Weir winning the 2003 Masters.

Midfielder’s injury gives Canada a greater purpose to succeed

Some important questions needed answering in Canada’s second game of the 2026 World Cup. Well, consider them answered. And how.

Perhaps the most practical query involved striker Jonathan David, whose disappointing club season at Juventus seemed to seep into the national team’s Group B opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

After his early substitution in Toronto, would he start in Vancouver?

The answer: yes.

RCMP vacancy rate in Manitoba drops below 10 per cent after years of staff shortages

The RCMP has managed to tamp down a nagging vacancy rate across Manitoba that frustrated municipal leaders and rural residents who were tired of years of staffing shortages and the effect on safety.

Flooded-out Interlake farmers call for government action on neglected watershed drainage system

Guiding his side-by-side vehicle over a narrow trail separating hundreds of acres of flooded fields in this rural Manitoba municipality Thursday, local farmer Brian Boonstra said there is little hope of saving his crops.

Bringing remains on planes a real pain

Vincent Masse holds up a snack-size Ziploc containing ashes belonging to his late dog Balthazar.

While smugglers sometimes successfully whisk other bagged powders past airport security, this one barely made it through.

“The Halifax security were all going like this,” says Masse’s new friend Kerri Parnell, crossing her fingers. She means they were hoping that the airport’s new CT X-ray scanners for carry-on bags, installed at Canadian airports over the past couple of years, would not once again flag Balthazar’s remains.

That’s what they had done the day before, leading Masse to miss his flight — and costing him about $1,000 to rebook.

Jonathan Toews hanging up blades on storied career

Jonathan Toews is ready to hang up his blades. The Winnipegger has decided to retire, with a formal announcement scheduled for Friday morning at the Dakota community centre that was renamed to celebrate him.

For nimble nonagenarian, there’s been no looking back since exercise epiphany six decades ago

It’s been 46 years since Ray Elliott completed his first Manitoba Marathon but the spry-looking 91-year-old father of three, grandfather of four and great-grandfather of two remembers the occasion like it was yesterday.

Back then, the annual Father’s Day race ended at Winnipeg Stadium near Polo Park. Elliott vividly recalls turning right as he entered the venue and hearing a thunderous roar erupt from the thousands of onlookers who had packed the stands to encourage participants to the finish line.

“It was quite the experience being cheered on by a crowd that large and after witnessing that I got really serious about running, maybe because I wanted to recreate the moment again,” Elliott says, seated in his third-floor Henderson Highway condo, which overlooks a meandering section of the Red River.

Elliott’s marathon days are long gone. Still, he reserves time for physical activity of some sort, every single day. The former Great-West Life manager typically gets up at 5:45 a.m. to go for a brisk walk through his neighbourhood. Then, after he has breakfast with his wife Lillian at her personal care home next door to where he lives, he heads to the YMCA-YWCA to jog around the track for an hour or so. He also bikes, swims and golfs — last week he shot one stroke better than his age at Kildonan Golf Course — and in April set a new provincial record for men ages 90 to 94, when he bench-pressed 42.5 kilograms at a powerlifting competition held at Glenlawn Collegiate.