Union calls for Stella’s boycott

Boler sales and rentals happening as soon as they pop up

In January, Jorge Torres bought a Boler trailer — a little fiberglass egg on wheels — and brought it to his fiancée’s house to surprise her.

“The opposite of a good surprise is what she had,” laughs Torres, a 30-year-old contractor. “She says, ‘What is this garbage?’”

That garbage, Torres calmly explained, was a cult classic, a lightweight, ovoid escape pod first designed in Winnipeg in 1968, of which only 10,000 were manufactured, making it a valuable commodity and a retro, futuristic objet d’art with room for four sleepers. It was in pretty rough shape: scuffed up, beat up, used. It looked as though it needed a fresh coat of everything.

So to ease his fiancée’s worry, Torres, who had a rough year business-wise owing to the pandemic, found some images of refurbished models. “I’m telling you, I can fix it up and make it look really cool, even nicer than this,” he said, saying they could rent it out. There was a market, and a growing one at that, for camping and seeing the great outdoors after a year-plus spent indoors. She started to come around.

Canada goes young and old for Olympic men's hockey

Canada is turning to a mix of youthful exuberance and battle-scarred experience in its quest for Olympic men's hockey gold minus the country's NHL stars.

The 25-man roster announced Tuesday is bookended by 37-year-old Eric Staal and fellow centre Mason McTavish, who turns 19 this weekend, for the upcoming Beijing Games.

"We always talk about playing the Canadian way," head coach Claude Julien said on a video conference call with reporters. "We're a proud country of the way we play the game.

"We're going to be an aggressive team."

Smith’s pretzel logic confuses

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had both sides of her mouth working overtime on Aug. 30, when she spoke at an event in Calgary to commemorate Alberta Day, the annual celebration of the province’s entry into Confederation in 1905 (officially Sept. 1, it was celebrated on the weekend).

Smith’s comments — and the things she did not say — revealed a lot about the political tightrope the premier is trying to walk over the challenges currently faced by her province. At the top of that list of challenges is a persistent campaign to separate Alberta from the aforementioned Confederation. A campaign that Smith appears to both support and oppose, depending on which day of the week it is.

Her Alberta Day remarks were an excellent case in point.

Smith has decided that on Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on a series of non-binding propositions in a province referendum. One of those questions will ask Albertans whether they want to hold a referendum on separation, thus making this fall’s vote a “referendum on whether to hold a referendum,” as some observers have dubbed it.

FAQ: Winnipeg’s boil-water advisory

To boil water: Fill a pot with water from the cold-water tap. Heat it until bubbles come from the bottom of the pot to the top. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, let it boil for one minute (kettles with an automatic shutoff feature may not boil for a full minute).

Brewers question province’s plan for trade missions to open markets

INSTEAD of a travel itch, confusion and frustration have emerged among some Manitoba brewers while the province plans interprovincial trade missions for the sector.

The government has slated $500,000 for its initiative.

Work is just beginning. The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries have been tapped to assist.

Delegations may land in Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia or Ontario, a government spokesperson said.