2021 Countryfest to feature all-Canadian lineup

Manitoba NDP secure star election campaign manager

The mastermind behind the historic 2011 “orange wave” that elevated the NDP to the official opposition in Parliament, then helped Rachel Notley in 2015 end 44 years of Tory rule in Alberta, is coming to Manitoba to join the effort to unseat Heather Stefanson’s Progressive Conservative government.

Trump touts USMCA win in state of the union

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump declared his scorched-earth political style an unmitigated success Tuesday in a fiercely partisan, made-for-TV state of the union speech that made it clear he expects to be back in the White House next year on the strength of the U.S. economy and his trade deals with Canada, Mexico and China.

Trump, addressing a joint session of Congress in the very chamber where House Democrats voted to impeach him less than two months ago, became only the second president in American history — Bill Clinton was the first — to deliver a state of the union while standing trial in the Senate.

Unrepentant, he pointedly refused to shake the offered hand of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the dais before singing the praises of what he billed as "the great American comeback," pointing to strong job growth, a soaring stock market and low unemployment as evidence of his leadership. And when he was done, Pelosi ripped up the speech in full view of the television cameras.

"America's enemies are on the run, America's fortunes are on the rise, and America's future is blazing bright. The years of economic decay are over," Trump declared, taking full credit for the country's "roaring economy," including what he billed as seven million new jobs and the lowest jobless rate in half a century — a "blue-collar boom" that he's counting on to help his re-election chances in November.

Main Street restaurant Boujee burns for the second time in one week

A former restaurant on Main Street is set to be demolished after a fire broke out for the second time in less than a week.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews responded to reports of a fire at Boujee Restaurant and Bar, a vacant, single-storey building on the 100 block of Main Street shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday. The same building was most recently damaged in a fire last Sunday.

At the scene, crews found heavy smoke coming from the building. After attacking the fire using aerial ladders that sprayed water from above, firefighters arranged an emergency demolition of the building. Demolition is expected to be completed today, the WFPS said in a news release.

No injuries were reported and the fire is under investigation.

Bach says Russia ban is to protect athletes, not punish them

The truth is that many of the ingredients that led to Jason Kenney’s demise are — at least so far — winning staples of the ongoing federal Conservative leadership campaign, Chantal Hébert writes.

Residential school reaction brings hope: survivor

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - The shock being expressed about the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia could be a force to bring long-awaited change, says an author and school survivor.

Garry Gottfriedson, whose poems and books explore Indigenous identity, says the reaction to the news about the former Kamloops Indian Residential School is uplifting and could force governments and the Catholic Church to address the past and face the future.

"I never expected it. I did not expect it," Gottfriedson said in an interview at a provincial park near his Kamloops home. "That shows the spirit of true Canadians that they really want to learn. They really don't want to hide anything anymore."

Canada's history has established and perfected policy that hides the colonization of Indigenous people, but what is happening in Kamloops is showing Canadians the reality, he said.

New lab a win for Winnipeg’s long game

It would be easy to overlook the announcement this week that the federal government was green-lighting a quarter-billion-dollar expansion of the National Microbiology Laboratory’s Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health on Arlington Street.

Easy to overlook, in part, because it will take a decade to build the new 140,000-square-foot laboratory specializing in medical countermeasures.

But make no mistake, this latest investment from Ottawa galvanizes Winnipeg’s reputation as a global leader in the research of the world’s most infectious diseases. It also confirms that a wager made by Manitoba political leaders nearly 40 years ago is paying off in spades.

The existing NML was, to be frank, hastily conceived compensation for one of the most egregious examples of political pork-barrelling ever seen in Canada.