Your forecast
A mix of sun and cloud with a 70 per cent chance of showers this morning and 30 per cent chance of showers late this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm. Wind from the south at 20 km/h becoming northwest 20 early this afternoon. High 31 C. Humidex 40. UV index 9 or very high.
This June was the fifth-driest in Winnipeg during the 151 years weather data has been collected.
Manitoba’s capital had only 23 millimetres of precipitation, which is 31 per cent of normal rainfall, statistics from Environment and Climate Change Canada show.
“It’s definitely dry and this is exacerbating the problems that are out there,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor. Nicole Buffie has more here.
What’s happening today
Paranormal Cirque returns to Winnipeg starting today, setting up its freaky bigtop in St. Vital Centre’s parking lot. Presented by Cirque Italia, the show made its Canadian debut last summer and offers a mix of theatre, circus arts and cabaret — all with a horror twist. St. Vital Centre, 1225 St Mary’s Rd., until July 14, various showtimes. Tickets $35-$80 available online.
Paranormal Cirque contortionist Nikki Hernandez is back with her troupe. (Joshua Davis photo)
Today’s must-read
A few years ago, as the COVID-19 pandemic peaked and patriotism grew divisive, it might have drawn more snark online: tens of thousands of Winnipeggers at The Forks for Canada Day, waving the Maple Leaf, scarfing beaver tails and belting out O Canada.
But it’s been year of whiplashes for a country known for its almost sleepy stability. A year of unravelling alliances, annexation talk and old-school protectionism in the political arena, and three-fights-in-nine-seconds in the more familiar one. Now, it’s “elbows up” and suddenly those red-and-white flags aren’t so taboo.
A Probe poll commissioned by the Free Press in June suggests feelings of Canadian patriotism, while ebbing a little since March, still run high.
But the same poll also found that a majority of federal Tory (56 per cent) and provincial Progressive Conservative (52 per cent) supporters in Manitoba would likely vote to leave Canada. Overall, about one in four Manitobans share this feeling, though these views barely register among NDP and Liberal voters. Conrad Sweatman has the story.
On the bright side
The staff at Churchill Wild’s Seal River Heritage Lodge have seen countless polar bears emerge from Hudson Bay’s treacherous ice over the decades, but nothing prepared them for what walked ashore last week.
A three-legged female polar bear, nicknamed Tripod, who has defied every survival rule in the Arctic, appeared at the remote ecolodge 60 kilometres north of Churchill with something that should have been impossible: a healthy cub trailing behind her.
In a landscape where even healthy polar bears face brutal odds, Tripod’s existence represents one of nature’s most incredible comebacks. George Williams has the story.
A blueberry-stained Tripod has defied survival expectations and now has a cub in tow. (Steve Pressman photo)
On this date
On July 4, 1960: The Winnipeg Free Press reported that during arbitration proceedings a solicitor with the Manitoba Teachers’ Society made the shocking revelation that the Winnipeg School Board board was illegally paying teachers for their experience outside the city, amounting to $100 per teacher per year. In Ottawa, prime minister John Diefenbaker said nuclear warheads would not be allowed in Canada for use on Canadian weapons unless the Canadian government exercised full control over them. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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