Acting on the hometown pride

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are off to the Grey Cup for the third consecutive year! While I’m not a football fan per se (I don’t really understand the game… please don’t be mad at me), I do have hometown pride in our sports teams, and I’ve officially jumped on the bandwagon after the Bombers’ 28-20 victory over the B.C. Lions last Sunday.

Aside from being proud of the team, I’m really excited for Manitoba football fans who get to experience their favourite team making it, once again, to the CFL’s championship game — this time against the Toronto Argos. Relish the moment, Bomber fans, it’s going to be a good one!

The good news is quarterback, Zach Collaros is expected to play in the Grey Cup in Regina this Sunday. (There was concern over an ankle injury he sustained in the West Division final.)

Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros (8) and his teammates head off to Regina to play the 109th Grey Cup against the Toronto Argonauts. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

As the festivities kick off in Regina leading up to the big game, Winnipeggers are having a rough time finding accommodations in the neighbouring prairie town.

Will you be watching the big game? I will. And there’s lots of room on the bandwagon.

Good luck, Blue & Gold!

Shelley Cook, Columnist

Good news this week

Alan Small wrote a beautiful profile of Ivan Eyre, the Winnipeg artist who died Nov. 5 at the age of 87. Eyre’s lifelong friend, David Loch, said of the artist: “There was Ivan the extraordinary person, there was Ivan the man, Ivan the creator.”

“Everything from his imagination put onto canvas, with no photographs and no real drawings made relating to the scale of what the canvases were… That’s the magical thing,” he said. Read the whole story here.

Ivan Eyre. (Winnipeg Free Press Archives)

Have you ever wondered what it takes to turn Winnipeg’s downtown into a twinkly holiday wonderland? AV Kitching wrote about how the city transforms downtown into the downtown of our childhood, year after year, and it’s a more complex (and almost mechanical) process that you’d imagine! Read the story here.

This delicious profile on local delicatessen, Pastrami & Things, located directly across from the main entrance of the St. Boniface Hospital is a wonderful read. Janine LeGal talked to owner Cecile Hull, 82, who has been feeding folks for four decades. Read the full story here.