Ontario launches project to let paramedics treat palliative patients on scene

Civic election a missed opportunity

The outcome of the latest municipal election in Winnipeg is nothing short of baffling. The decline of what was once a proud, beautiful prairie hub is impossible to ignore.

Winnipeg is rapidly sliding into a state of structural and social dilapidation, yet voters have inexplicably chosen to hand incumbent Mayor Scott Gillingham a second term. The decision smells of complacency, and sadly, it represents a massive missed opportunity for real urban renewal.

Walking through downtown Winnipeg today is an exercise in heartbreak. A city centre that should be a bustling economic and cultural core has instead transformed into an absolute eyesore. Encampments and tents are permitted to dot the heart of the city. Streets that used to thrive are now dominated by the tragic, visible reality of severe addiction, with individuals wandering and staggering through public spaces without adequate intervention or care.

A city subcommittee was provided with a routine update on the status of an ongoing administrative process Thursday, in accordance with standard reporting procedures.

It has been quite a week. First we had “Lula” – Luiz Inácio da Silva (as nobody but his mother ever called him) – defying everybody’s expectations. After winding up two million votes behind his challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro, in the first round of the Brazilian presidential election, he made a “miraculous” comeback in the second.

It was like a man going into a revolving door behind you and coming out in front. At the end of the first round, Lula was two million votes behind; at the end of the second round on Oct. 25 he was four million votes ahead. So how did he win a fourth term without cheating?

That’s what Bolsonaro claims he did, having fled to the United States; Trump, Flávio’s mentor, hints at the same. But Lula’s victory was not miraculous. He only learned to read when he was 10, and at 80 he still refused to have a mobile phone. His team finally made him get one and use it.

He wouldn’t do social media videos, so they created a WhatsApp channel called Lula’s Army, and made him appear on it at least daily. The channel went from zero to 10.8 million viewers in two weeks, and Lula won.