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The political theatre of referenda on taxes

Editorial 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 7:22 AM CDT

It was, one supposes, intended as a bold declaration, a signal to supporters that hers will be a no-nonsense kind of government.

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High-speed internet necessity, not luxury

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High-speed internet necessity, not luxury

Editorial 4 minute read Saturday, Jun. 3, 2023

Many people head to the hinterlands to escape the city’s hustle and bustle and seek a slower-paced lifestyle.

They gladly leave the traffic jams behind, but many former urbanites couldn’t imagine life without high-speed internet, which opens the door to streaming television services, social-media websites or video-game platforms.

Tell that to the 17 per cent of Manitobans who, at the end of 2022, had yet to receive high-speed internet access, a rate that is second-worst in the country.

The statistic looks particularly woeful when compared with neighbouring Saskatchewan, which says 99 per cent of the province’s households can access high-speed internet through Sasktel, the provincially owned Crown corporation.

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Saturday, Jun. 3, 2023

Rural areas in Manitoba need high-speed internet to thrive. (AP Photo / Kathy Willens)

Will Alberta’s election campaign go federal?

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Will Alberta’s election campaign go federal?

Editorial 3 minute read Thursday, Jun. 1, 2023

Political tremors emanating from Alberta Monday night should serve as a warning shot for the rest of Canada.

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Thursday, Jun. 1, 2023

Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press files

The win by Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party will embolden the combative style of right-wing parties.

The store next door

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The store next door

Editorial 3 minute read Wednesday, May. 31, 2023

The basics are usually the same: a wall of chips and candy, milk, tins of coffee, bread, a newspaper stand, gum, some fresh fruit and vegetables, lottery, tobacco products and a roll top freezer full of treats to beat the heat on a sweltering summer day.

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Wednesday, May. 31, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESs fileS

Young Na, owner of V-Maxx Convenience Store, plans to stay open despite high prices, which make it tough to buy goods to sell.

A celebration — but there’s still need for action

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A celebration — but there’s still need for action

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 30, 2023

On June 28, 1968, The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar located in New York City’s Greenwich Village, was raided by police. When the cops became violent, the patrons — many of them drag queens and LGBTTQ+ people of colour — rose up and fought back.

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Tuesday, May. 30, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Pride Winnipeg president Barry Karlenzig (left), Kookum Gayle Pruden, and premier Heather Stefanson raise the Pride flag outside of the Manitoba Legislative Building on May 26, 2023.

Religious class shouldn’t get blessing

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Religious class shouldn’t get blessing

Editorial 3 minute read Monday, May. 29, 2023

For generations, citizens of democratic nations have negotiated a sometimes-fraught tension in the boundaries between the authority of the state, and that of religious leaders.

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Monday, May. 29, 2023

Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files

Laura Lawrence, Discovery Time director, with a selection of education material at Child Evangelism Fellowship of Manitoba.

Social media and the safety of children

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Social media and the safety of children

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, May. 25, 2023

Of all the duties that are incumbent on civil societies, surely the protection of their most vulnerable must rank near the top of the list.

There are none more vulnerable than children; it is they who depend most on us for their safety and well-being, and whose trust we, as adults, must seek never to betray.

With these immutable truths as a backdrop, serious consideration must be given to the U.S. surgeon general’s issuance this week of an advisory on social media’s impact on children and youth. Dr. Vivek H. Murthy lays out in no uncertain terms the perils faced by young social-media users and the abiding obligation for parents, governments and social-media purveyors to mitigate those harms.

“The bottom line is we do not have enough evidence to conclude that social media is sufficiently safe for our kids,” Dr. Murthy writes. “In fact, there is increasing evidence that social-media use during adolescence — a critical stage of brain development — is associated with harm to mental health and well-being.”

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Thursday, May. 25, 2023

FILE - In this Aug. 11, 2019, file photo an iPhone displays the apps for Facebook and Messenger in New Orleans. Facebook says the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will be violating the company's rules if agents create fake profiles to monitor the social media of foreigners seeking to enter the country. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

In inflation fight, nice guys finish last

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In inflation fight, nice guys finish last

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, May. 24, 2023

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem has more or less cornered himself into resuming the rapid escalation of interest rates that he started last year and suspended in January this year. The purpose of raising rates would be to curtail inflation, but it is far from clear how much success Macklem’s stop-and-go method will achieve.

Statistics Canada reported last week that the Consumer Price Index in April rose 4.4 per cent over the course of the preceding year. The year-over-year increase in March had been 4.3 per cent. The April figure was the first acceleration in consumer inflation since June 2022.

Macklem and his colleagues at the Canadian central bank raised interest rates at every opportunity from March 2022 until January this year, when he decreed a pause in rate increases to await developments. Central banks of other leading industrial economies, meanwhile, continued raising rates because they had not yet seen signs that inflation was easing.

Canada’s inflation did indeed decline to an annual rate of 4.3 per cent in March from its peak of 8.1 per cent last June. The governor, however, was finding it harder than he expected to bring inflation all the way down to the bank’s target level of two per cent per year. He started warning the public that if workers didn’t moderate their wage demands and companies didn’t start curbing their appetites for price increases, he was going to have to swing the interest rate hammer once again.

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Wednesday, May. 24, 2023

Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem. (The Canadian Press files)

Flying the sponsored skies

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Flying the sponsored skies

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 23, 2023

The announcement of new air routes to and from Richardson International Airport always crank up the afterburners for Winnipeggers with wanderlust.

The latest news came May 11 when Calgary-based airline WestJet announced it will debut a five-times-a-week direct air service between Winnipeg and Atlanta, scheduled to begin Sept. 6.

Atlanta’s international airport is the world’s busiest and offers more than 100 new American and international connections for Winnipeg travellers through WestJet’s codeshare partner, Delta Airlines, which uses Atlanta as its main hub.

The new route also offers a boost to Winnipeg businesses such as Price Industries Ltd, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) parts and equipment designer with a production facility in Atlanta that employs 1,500 people, and to city manufacturer Winpak Ltd., which also has a sizable operation in an Atlanta suburb.

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Tuesday, May. 23, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

The province has also contributed $5 million to the Winnipeg Airports Authority for its own efforts to attract new routes.

Time to tune out transphobic rhetoric

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Time to tune out transphobic rhetoric

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 23, 2023

The trumpet of ignorance sounded clearly this month when the Brandon School Division gave a full hearing to a proposal to ban books.

Taking its place among several other similar calls in the past year, the hearing offered grandmother and former division trustee Lorraine Hackenschmidt ample time on the microphone to cite her “concern” for the content of several books relating to gender identity and sexual health issues.

The meeting follows a pattern among would-be book banners. Hackenschmidt starts out by admitting she is not a doctor or a psychologist, but insists she has done her “research” into the “LGBT ideology” — clearly poor research, if it failed to instruct her that one’s sexuality and gender identity are not matters of ideology. Among her motivations for her call to establish a committee — which would review and remove any “inappropriate” material — is to “protect our children from sexual grooming.”

Not only is that fear utterly baseless, it’s also a tell that Hackenschmidt, and others fighting this “battle” alongside her, are merely regurgitating learned talking points.

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Tuesday, May. 23, 2023

(Kyle Darbyson/The Brandon Sun)

The exterior of Brandon School Division’s administration office.

To Trump or not to Trump?

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To Trump or not to Trump?

Editorial 4 minute read Monday, May. 22, 2023

The May 10 CNN town hall broadcast featuring former United States president Donald Trump wrapped up almost two weeks ago, but Americans are still trying to figure out what exactly happened.

The whole town hall idea seemed implausible: CNN, a network reviled by Mr. Trump and which has steadfastly challenged the former president’s false claims of electoral fraud, giving an open forum and free rein to the presumptive front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination to spew his Trumpian effluent.

But, hey, news is news. At least, that’s the way CNN leadership tried to justify its decision to host the town hall.

In the aftermath of the profane and incorrigible performance by Trump, CNN CEO Chris Licht reportedly told staff: “You do not have to like the former president’s answers but you can’t say that we didn’t get them.”

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Monday, May. 22, 2023

The May 10 CNN town hall broadcast featuring former United States president Donald Trump wrapped up almost two weeks ago, but Americans are still trying to figure out what exactly happened.

The whole town hall idea seemed implausible: CNN, a network reviled by Mr. Trump and which has steadfastly challenged the former president’s false claims of electoral fraud, giving an open forum and free rein to the presumptive front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination to spew his Trumpian effluent.

But, hey, news is news. At least, that’s the way CNN leadership tried to justify its decision to host the town hall.

In the aftermath of the profane and incorrigible performance by Trump, CNN CEO Chris Licht reportedly told staff: “You do not have to like the former president’s answers but you can’t say that we didn’t get them.”

It’s humanity, not accounting

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It’s humanity, not accounting

Editorial 4 minute read Friday, May. 19, 2023

Prairie Green.

It sounds almost too bucolic to be connected to a suspected serial killer.

But the Prairie Green Landfill is where the bodies of Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, are believed to be, two of four Indigenous women believed to be victims of the same attacker.

Partial remains of 24-year-old Rebecca Contois were found at the Brady landfill. Police have not said where they believe the remains of a fourth victim, Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) might be.

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Friday, May. 19, 2023

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES

Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) Grand Chief Jerry Daniels speaks at a discussion about the feasibility study regarding Prairie Green and the next steps in the search.

Portage-Lisgar and a PPC parachute candidate

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Portage-Lisgar and a PPC parachute candidate

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, May. 18, 2023

Maxime Bernier is a party leader desperately in search of a constituency.

He’s also an ideologue with a masterful grasp of grievance politics, an opportunist in pursuit of a malleable audience, a carpetbagger with no discernible sense of shame and an agitator furiously in search of a grindable axe.

These are the dubious attributes the Quebec-born and-bred founder of the People’s Party of Canada brings to his quixotic quest to gain access to the House of Commons via a byelection in the staunchly conservative Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar.

The byelection — one of four that will take place (two in Manitoba, one each in Ontario and Quebec) on June 19 — was made necessary by the resignation in February of Conservative MP Candice Bergen, who had represented Portage-Lisgar since 2008.

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Thursday, May. 18, 2023

Maxime Bernier, People’s Party of Canada leader, announced his candidacy for Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar earlier this month. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

A tale of two roadway plans

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A tale of two roadway plans

Editorial 3 minute read Wednesday, May. 17, 2023

Considering the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and motor vehicle use, it is instructive to compare two approaches to urban planning in Winnipeg: one along Route 90 between Ness and Taylor avenues and the other in Osborne Village.

The former is a plan to widen a busy roadway, a move that will ultimately attract more vehicles and, in all likelihood, fail to achieve its primary goal of reducing traffic congestion. The latter is an attempt to discourage motor vehicle use by prioritizing pedestrian traffic, public transit and active transportation.

The City of Winnipeg is planning to spend some $500 million to widen Route 90 and separate combined sewers along the roadway. The plan includes upgrades to the St. James bridges and would add new, dedicated walking and cycling pathways.

The main objective of the mega project is to improve traffic flow for motor vehicles. To achieve that, the city plans to add a lane northbound and southbound and standardize the speed limit at 60 km/h (it currently varies between 50 km/h and 70 km/h).

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Wednesday, May. 17, 2023

SUPPLIED

Without the added lanes, commute times along Route 90 for northbound vehicles during morning rush-hour would nearly double over the next 18 years to about 14 minutes, the city projects.

Two wheels and one big problem

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Two wheels and one big problem

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 16, 2023

The sun is shining, the trees are budding and Winnipeg bike thieves are gearing up for another busy season of breaking locks and reselling stolen goods online.

Bicycle theft might seem like small potatoes when compared to more serious local concerns — such as an uptick in violent crimes and arsons — but it’s a nagging issue that commands few resources and sees little improvement year after year. After year. Stolen bikes have become an accepted, embarrassing fact of life in Winnipeg.

When Ai Weiwei’s towering sculpture of 1,245 silver bicycles was installed at The Forks in 2019, social media was atwitter with jokes about how long it would take thieves to run off with the 30-foot public art piece.

During last year’s mayoral race, candidate Rick Shone had his bike stolen minutes after pitching a plan to reduce bike theft — again, online reaction was swift. Few seemed surprised that a bicycle was snatched in broad daylight.

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Tuesday, May. 16, 2023

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS/FILE

Bikes locked up on Sherbrook Street. Bike theft is a persistent problem in Winnipeg.

A new king, so what now?

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A new king, so what now?

Editorial 4 minute read Monday, May. 15, 2023

There was plenty of pomp surrounding King Charles’ coronation ceremony.

The aftermath brings the circumstance, which for Canada, is a political crossroads.

In one direction lies a well-worn path the country has travelled since Confederation in 1867, with Canada’s head of state being the British monarch, which King Charles became last September after the death of his predecessor and mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The constitutional monarchy model, with a governor general representing the sitting monarch in Canada, has been mostly a quiet undercurrent to the nation’s political system, whether the governor general was a British lord, or since Vincent Massey’s appointment in 1952, a Canadian citizen with no regal background.

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Monday, May. 15, 2023

Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla look at each other as they stand on the balcony of the Buckingham Palace after their coronation, in London, Saturday, May 6, 2023. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)

PCs carving out legacy of blunders

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PCs carving out legacy of blunders

Editorial 4 minute read Monday, May. 15, 2023

Manitoba’s governing party faces many challenges, none of which is made easier by its talent for putting its foot in its mouth.

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Monday, May. 15, 2023

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Files

Premier Heather Stefanson

The mess at the top of MPI

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The mess at the top of MPI

Editorial 3 minute read Friday, May. 12, 2023

So, the provincial cabinet minister responsible for Manitoba Public Insurance has declared his government is “absolutely not defending” the pay raises the Crown corporation’s chief executive officer received during a period in which a major technology-upgrade project’s budget spun wildly out of control.

Well, that’s encouraging. But the mere fact Kelvin Goertzen has declined, on behalf of the current Progressive Conservative government, to endorse the salary increases and bonuses afforded to CEO Eric Herbelin does not in any way absolve him or the government from responsibility for this latest chapter in the ongoing MPI debacle.

Mr. Herbelin was hired as the public insurer’s top executive in 2021 and, as such, has been in charge while the information-technology upgrade known as Project Nova has fallen years behind schedule and seen its budget, originally pegged at $128.5 million, spiral upward to nearly $290 million.

A recent investigation by the Free Press revealed that while Project Nova was unravelling, Mr. Herbelin received annual increases to his salary, which was $363,263 when he assumed his current role. That figure rose to $375,563 in 2022 — an increase of more than three per cent — and while MPI has refused to disclose his salary for 2023, sources confirmed for the Free Press that the CEO’s pay increased again after an external compensation review.

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Friday, May. 12, 2023

(Ethan Cairns / Free Press files)

Government has tools to make HSC safer

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Government has tools to make HSC safer

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, May. 11, 2023

Doing nothing just isn’t an option when it comes to the safety of health-care workers.

There is one step the provincial government could take to immediately address the vandalism, vehicle break-ins and rampant theft around Health Sciences Centre: hire institutional safety officers.

Crime around Manitoba’s largest hospital continues to escalate, causing health-care staff, patients and visitors to feel unsafe. The Manitoba Nurses Union has for years pointed to safety problems at the downtown hospital, both inside and outside the facility.

The Free Press spoke with several nurses at HSC last week about safety concerns within the facility’s parking areas. Each one said they did not feel safe using the hospital’s parkades and parking lots during working hours.

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Thursday, May. 11, 2023

SHANNON VANRAES / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Files

The crime around Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre continues to escalate, causing health-care staff, patients and visitors to feel unsafe.

Is an interest rate increase on the horizon?

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Is an interest rate increase on the horizon?

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, May. 10, 2023

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem no longer expects Canada’s inflation to fall to his two per cent target of its own accord, he told the Toronto Region Board of Trade last week. Canadians are going to have to change their ways, he warned, or else he’s going to have to resume cranking up interest rates to stop inflation in its tracks.

The central bank had been forecasting that inflation would decline to three per cent per year by the middle of this year and decline further next year to reach the official two per cent target. We’re already in May and the annual inflation rate is still 4.3 per cent to 4.7 per cent, if you leave out volatile food and energy prices.

Governor Macklem was pleased that the year-over-year inflation rate had declined to 4.3 per cent from its peak of 8.1 per cent last June, but the difference in those two figures is partly an optical illusion, rather than a reflection of the forces at work in the Canadian economy. Inflation two years ago was held in check by the pandemic in a way that does not apply now.

The apparent decline in inflation, therefore, reflects some mix of the bank’s interest rate rises and the passing of the pandemic era. It does not predict what is likely to happen next in Canada’s consumer price performance.

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Wednesday, May. 10, 2023

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press Files

Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada, no longer expects Canada’s inflation to fall to his two per cent target of its own accord.

Australia and the move to vapourize vaping

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Australia and the move to vapourize vaping

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 9, 2023

When the smoke — or, if you’d rather, vapour — clears, there will be much for Canada to learn from Australia’s latest move to stem the tide of nicotine addiction among its youth population.

The Australian government last week announced it will impose an outright ban on recreational vaping products in an effort to control what officials there describe as an alarming rise in teenage vaping. The government will also significantly tighten other regulations related to the importation, distribution and use of e-cigarettes and other vaping-related products.

“Vapes” containing nicotine have long been promoted by the tobacco industry as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes and even a transitional step in helping smokers quit. Such devices already require a prescription in Australia, but inadequate industry regulation means young people have easy access to vaping products, including those that contain nicotine.

“Just like they did with smoking… ‘Big Tobacco’ has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging and added sweet flavours to create a new generation of nicotine addicts,” Australian Minister of Health Mark Butler said while announcing the vaping ban.

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Tuesday, May. 9, 2023

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Files

Australia pulls the plug on recreational vaping. Canada should follow suit.

Fox hosts change, the toxic message doesn’t

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Fox hosts change, the toxic message doesn’t

Editorial 4 minute read Monday, May. 8, 2023

News media in the United States remain somewhat obsessed with finding the reasons behind the firing of Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Reporters are still unearthing troves of texts and emails, tracking down current and former Fox employees, all in the hopes of explaining the sudden and unexpected derailment of arguably the most viral, and vile, news media personality on the planet.

The theories abound.

Mr. Carlson’s firing was no doubt partly tied to the historic US$787.5-million defamation settlement Fox reached with Dominion Voting Systems, and the fact another multi-billion-dollar civil defamation suit is still pending. Mr. Carlson was as guilty as any within the Fox News stable of promoting demonstrably false theories of electoral fraud in a desperate bid to keep former president Donald Trump in power.

The Dominion suit produced volumes of testimony and correspondence showing clearly that Fox news personalities, including Mr. Carlson, knowingly lied on air and fabricated stories to pursue a political agenda and expand their audience. The texts also showed Mr. Carlson lashing out at a host of newsmakers and co-workers using the most profane language imaginable.

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Monday, May. 8, 2023

Richard Drew / The Associated Press files

Tucker Carlson recently lost his prominent Fox News hosting job.

Alberta election a dry run for Manitoba?

Editorial 3 minute read Preview

Alberta election a dry run for Manitoba?

Editorial 3 minute read Monday, May. 8, 2023

Manitobans will be closely following the political battle in Alberta this month. That province’s May 29 election will set the course for the largest and most prosperous of the Prairie provinces. The Alberta contest may also suggest how ruling Conservatives and opposition New Democrats are faring ahead of Manitoba’s fall election.

In both provinces, the rural-based Conservatives and the urban-centred socialists are fairly evenly matched in public support. Public impatience with Conservative premiers Danielle Smith in Alberta and Heather Stefanson in Manitoba might bring the NDP to power in both Edmonton and Winnipeg during the next six months. Fear of economic damage from the anti-business instincts of the NDP might, however, keep the Conservatives in power in either province.

Both Conservative parties dumped their leaders, Alberta’s Jason Kenny and Manitoba’s Brian Pallister. Mr. Kenney lost his own party’s support because he was not stridently enough anti-Ottawa and anti-vaccine for the angriest segment of his party. Mr. Pallister fell into disfavour because his cuts to health care produced disastrous results when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the province.

Ms. Smith has used her six months in office to reassure the anti-vaccine activists that she hates the federal government as much as they do. Ms. Stefanson, during her 18 months in power, has been trying to persuade the public that she is a kinder, gentler Conservative, less extreme than Mr. Pallister.

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Monday, May. 8, 2023

The Canadian Press

Alberta United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith speaks at a campaign launch rally in Calgary.

Time for honest answers: Canadians deserve clarity on Chong

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Time for honest answers: Canadians deserve clarity on Chong

Editorial 4 minute read Friday, May. 5, 2023

There are some things that simply should not be political. In fact, there comes a point when politics can’t be counted on to find the truth.

After a series of different leaks from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), it’s abundantly clear the spy service had reason to believe family members of a Canadian member of Parliament, Conservative Michael Chong, had been targeted by the Chinese government. (Chong had been a sponsor of a bill condemning the Chinese government’s treatment of ethnic Uighurs.)

That situation is untenable: if a foreign government is targeting Canadian citizens, let alone elected representatives at the highest levels of government, action must be taken.

The federal Conservatives, understandably, want to maximize whatever political gain they can from this situation. Leave aside for a moment that the latest session of Parliament seems to be a full-time effort by the Conservative opposition to blame all problems on the Trudeau Liberals.

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Friday, May. 5, 2023

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press

Conservative MP Michael Chong

Time for the Vatican to send precious First Nations relics home

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Time for the Vatican to send precious First Nations relics home

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, May. 4, 2023

Indigenous Peoples in Canada received an encouraging sign Sunday when Pope Francis announced talks were underway to return First Nations artifacts which have for many years been lodged in the Vatican Museum.

The pontiff’s statement — in which he also voiced openness to returning other colonial-era objects on a case-by-case basis — comes after many pleas by Indigenous groups for the artifacts to be returned.

The news also presents an excellent opportunity for other hoarders of historical ill-gotten goods to follow in the church’s footsteps.

The Vatican is far from the only institution to haul away another culture’s history to put on display. The British Museum has in its collection around eight million items, many of them obtained illegitimately — British barrister Geoffrey Robertson told the Guardian in November 2019 the museum is the world’s “largest receiver of stolen property.”

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Thursday, May. 4, 2023

Andrew Medichini / The Associated Press files

Pope Francis has expressed willingness to return Indigenous artifacts held in the Vatican museum.

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