The residents of Thompson Drive

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/12/2022 (1344 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg hockey great Ab McDonald grew up in Weston. While playing for the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s St. Boniface Canadiens, he played with Cec Hoekstra, and Leo Konyk on a line called the “Weston Whizzers.” As a player, Ab won four Stanley Cups and one Calder Cup (the AHL championship). He scored the Chicago Black Hawks’ 1961 Stanley Cup-winning-goal and netted the first regular-season goal for the World Hockey Association’s Winnipeg Jets in 1972.

Ab is a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame. In 2016, he received Manitoba’s Order of the Buffalo Hunt. Ab and his wife, Pat, raised their children — Cindy, David, Lori, Steven, and Kristina — on Thompson Drive in St. James. Earlier this month, the Ab McDonald Arena was officially dedicated at the St. James Civic Centre. Speakers included Don Kuryk, Mark Chipman, and Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham (a former city councillor for the area) and Ab, who died in 2018, is remembered with a display in the Civic Centre lobby.

Let’s examine some of the history of the street the McDonalds called home.

In 1938, Eileen McFetridge won a prize for her nasturtiums in the young gardeners in the Waugh Shield Garden. Jessie Browne served as commissioner of the Manitoba Girl Guides. Laura McAlpine was an opera singer who performed for many different groups including the Manitoba Opera, Rainbow Stage, the Canadian Opera Chorus, and the Elmer Iseler singers.

Joe Zaleski spent 15 seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as a player and coach. Joe was the offensive coach when the Bombers won four Grey Cups in five years from 1958 to 1962. Between 1988 and 1990, Joe’s son Slater played in the CFL for Edmonton, Toronto, and Saskatchewan.

Between 1973 and 1986, Jim Ernst was the city councillor for Grant’s Mill. In 1986, he was elected the MLA for Charleswood. During his years as a councillor, he served as chair of Winnipeg Enterprises, and later, as part of the Gary Filmon’s Progressive Conservative cabinet, he was twice appointed minister of sport. Gerry McAlpine was the last person to serve as MLA for the Sturgeon Creek electoral district and was elected to two terms.

David Todd served as principal of eight rural Manitoba schools, while his wife, Eva, was a teacher. George Buchholz spent 39 years with the St. James School Division, the last 23 years as superintendent. In 1988, Jeanie McAlpine was elected as a St. James Assiniboia school trustee, and spoke out on a variety of issues, including smoking in school board buildings.

Gerald Letourneau, a long-time Thompson Drive resident, spent 43 years with Air Canada and he and wife Madge were active in many community activities.

Happy new year! I look forward to 2023, as I work to finish this street-by-street St. James history.