Bard’s secondary characters at centre stage

Of pigs and porcine politics

There’s an old saying in politics — that if you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty, and the pig likes it. Welcome to negotiating free trade with Donald Trump.

This is the unenviable position Canada finds itself in, a year and a half into a radically changed relationship with the United States. How do you negotiate with a president who practises the art of the steal? Is it principled to compromise with corruption simply to satisfy a president who is bankrupt of any principles except making money?

Answering these questions will say as much about us as it does about them.

President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat makes this starker. He is imposing 50 per cent tariffs on $28 billion worth of Canadian exports, covering more than 500 product categories.

Ryan Thorpe

Ryan Thorpe likes the pace of daily news, the feeling of a broadsheet in his hands and the stress of never-ending deadlines hanging over his head.

Ignoring the facts makes for a better budget story

In Premier Brian Pallister's world, the public accounts for the 2019-2020 fiscal year serve as the ultimate good news story.

The final accounting of government revenues and expenditures, the public accounts show a small surplus of $5 million. According to Pallister, this was accomplished without much pain for Manitobans, who can now share in the knowledge that finally, mercifully, the books are balanced.

Of course, in accentuating the positive, Pallister had to ignore a few things.

Such as tens of thousands of government workers who have gone without a pay increase for three years. And a health-care system that, despite an influx of funds last year, continues to suffer from three years of crippling underfunding. And infrastructure spending that has been cut back by hundreds of millions of dollars. And an education system in chaos from the dual pressures of austerity and pandemic upheaval.

Artificial advantage

Few consumer-facing industries illustrate the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence more than the financial services sector.

Generative AI — the technology powering chatbots that can seemingly think and provide reasonably correct, if not insightful, answers to our questions — is arguably a wonder of the modern world.

The potential for providing financial advice is indeed palpable. Then again, it’s not hard to imagine the technology running amok especially with people’s money.

A recent report on digital banking services provides insight on the risks and opportunities.

Flooding triggers evacuations in Peguis

Though much of Manitoba is free from the recent storm, the finish line is not yet in sight for communities across southern parts of the province that continue to combat overflowing rivers, swollen ditches and washed-out roads.

Severe flooding in the Fisher River, almost 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg, has triggered major evacuations in Peguis First Nation. Roughly a quarter of the community’s homes have been impacted by flooding, Chief Glenn Hudson of Peguis First Nation said Sunday afternoon.

“The fact is the water is starting to take over the community,” Hudson said. “It’s all about evacuation right now.”

Peguis First Nation had evacuated 150 residents to hotels in Gimli and Winnipeg as of Sunday morning. Though the community has managed the flooding on its own until now, Hudson says he is strongly considering calling on the military for support if conditions don’t stabilize soon.

COVID inspired Winnipeg's Leanne Pearson to find new ways to make connections

Leanne Pearson was fed up with 2020.

The Winnipeg country-rocker has seen the COVID-19 pandemic pull her life and career over to the side of the road.

Like so many other people in 2020, Pearson had become separated from loved ones. For months, she was in Winnipeg, staying with her folks and writing songs, while her fiancé, Jordan Riley, was at their home in Nashville, a closed border separating the two.

So she made a daring decision. She boarded a flight to Music City, one she’s taken many times, and shifted her relationship, and her music, back into high gear.