Horror, sci-fi, comedy mix uneasily in locally shot film

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

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.

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.

Well, another civic election season has come and gone, and I have to say it was a doozy. The most surprising event was the steady climb in support for young mayoral candidate Noah Redden, who started out with just four per cent public support in September but had reached a solid 14 per cent support in October.

On election day, Redden nearly came in second, less than one percentage point behind Kevin Klein, an experienced politician.

Indeed, the 27-year-old’s accomplishment was nothing short of astonishing. Particularly given that his shoestring campaign was given very little coverage — largely, according to one pundit, because he didn’t send out any press releases.

This when Redden’s unwritten press releases were there for everyone to see on Instagram, as he popped up in locations across the city, posting videos about what he hoped to achieve as mayor.