Sober second thought nixed sex for old times’ sake

Canada's Dubois wins bronze in men's 500m

BEIJING - Had Steven Dubois been told two weeks ago that he'd be a double Olympic medallist at his first Games, he would have never believed it.

Dubois, 24, captured his second short-track speedskating medal of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday, with a bronze medal in the men's 500-metre final.

The 24-year-old from Terrebonne, Que., flashed a grin and a thumbs-up as he stepped on the podium after finishing third behind Shaoang Liu of Hungary and Konstantin Ivliev of Russia.

It was the second medal for the first-time Olympian, who won silver in the 1,500-metre event last week.

Looming rain threatens to add to Red River Basin woes

A slow-moving Colorado low could dump about 60 millimetres of rain in Manitoba starting Wednesday, renewing spring flood fears as some communities shore up defences.

The last of two rainstorms this week could cause river levels to rise again or prolong severe flooding in the Interlake and Red River Valley.

“Another period of precipitation over the basin will just make things worse,” said Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada. “This isn’t it. The next storm is not the end. We could be in this for an extended period of time.”

The low-pressure system is forecast to move across the Canada-U.S. border Wednesday, with the Winnipeg area getting the bulk of its rain Thursday.

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.

Coaches hope to grow game, develop elite-level badminton players in new dedicated facility

Badminton coaches hope to grow game, develop elite-level players in dedicated nine-court public facility opening next week

Throne speech offers glimpse of PCs’ priorities

Throne speeches are more than just pomp and circumstance and the opportunity for selfies between political rivals on the beautiful marble floors of the Manitoba legislature building on Broadway. They set the agenda for the legislative session and set the tone for the government as it moves into its new session. Looked at carefully, they also reveal the priorities of the government by what is said, and also what is not said.

But they are also highly symbolic. They are delivered by the lieutenant-governor of the province, who acts as the symbol of the head of state, the Queen, but they are written by speechwriters for the government of the day.

Political scientists have studied the throne speeches delivered at the federal level to understand the thematic commonalities and what they say about nationalism over the past 30 years. Janine Brodie of the University of Alberta, for example, determined that Canadian throne speeches delivered before the 2000s embraced a more neo-liberal tone that was tied to the global economy.

After 2000, an analysis by Tim Nieguth (Laurentian University) and Tracey Raney (Ryerson University) found that Conservative throne speeches tended to focus on neo-conservative themes — emphasizing the family, the military and threats to security — while Liberals’ speeches talked about health care and Indigenous issues.