‘Over-joining’ strategy proves a solution for solitude

New year, deeper pockets needed

Changes to daily living expenses in the new year are bringing new challenges to Winnipeggers and Manitobans already burdened by the cost of living.

Getting around in the city by public transit got more expensive Thursday, and the cost of vehicle insurance will rise on April 1.

Winnipeg Transit’s standard adult cash fare increased by a dime to $3.45. Youth and seniors will now be charged $2.95, also up 10 cents compared to 2025 rates. Discounts remain in place for peggo card users, though electronic fares also rose to $3.10 for adults, $2.30 for youths and $1.55 for seniors.

Monthly passes also got more expensive: $119.35 for adults, $88.55 for youth and $59.70 for seniors. Short-term passes are also more expensive: a 24-hour adult peggo e-pass climbed to $11.45, and youth and senior versions rose to $8.50 and $5.75, respectively. A seven-day adult e-pass now sells for $31.

Al Simmons releasing his Barber of Seville adaptation

Al Simmons needs an audience. To the beloved Manitoban children’s entertainer, butts in seats are almost as crucial as well-placed puns. Many performers make themselves the centre of attention or the ultimate decision-maker, but what’s made Simmons an icon for over 50 years is that he does precisely the opposite: he lets the audience participate, inviting five-year-olds to sing with him, heckle him, and sometimes, stage bomb him.

“In front of an audience, they become my directors. That’s what I’ve done my whole career: I hear when they laugh, and I hear where they don’t,” says Simmons, now 72. “I instruct the audience at the beginning that I expect them to yell things at me, to laugh at me, to have fun. I encourage hecklers. It just makes everybody remember: Hey, I’m watching a live performance.”

Take an archival clip from 1980. At Assiniboine Park, the Human Jukebox stands tall and attracts a dense crowd, wondering who or what is inside. A coin is dropped into a Rube Goldbergian slot, rolling through a tube. The audience is quiet, until a hand pops through to catch it. A child screams, a bell dings, and out pops Simmons. “Now for this tune, I’m going to use a very special horn,” he says. “The noise of this horn comes out of your mouths. When I squeeze it, you all go, ‘HONK.’” They oblige.

There’s real artistry at play when Simmons performs live, which is why the last 12 months have been such a strange, inexplicable era in his life. 2020 was supposed to be the busiest year of his career, but it came screeching to a halt with the pandemic, right after a run of his one-man production of Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville wrapped up in Manitoba schools. (He developed the show with Manitoba Opera in 2009, and has toured it for the organization since).

Canada being side-swiped by Trump’s Cuba policy

Canada’s decades-long relationship with revolutionary Cuba has always been a three-country affair — with the United States frequently settling for the spurned third-wheel.

Since the early 1960s, successive U.S. governments have strenuously objected to Canadian trade and commercial engagement with the island. Officials in Washington have always believed that the Canadians were trying to make a “quick buck” at America’s expense, while simultaneously seeking to undermine the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

For almost 70 years now, Canada has had to negotiate the thorny issue of the U.S. trade embargo. Added to that was the anti-Cuba Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 and the still active 1996 Helms-Burton Law. Complicating matters further for Ottawa have been the various additions and subtractions to the unrelenting U.S. efforts to strangle the Cuban economy — particularly during the presidency of Barack Obama.

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a near-ironclad (some Russian oil is getting through), illegal fuel embargo against Cuba, using American naval vessels and U.S. Coast Guard ships. Additionally, he signed an executive order in early May to expand U.S. economic warfare, or what some call “secondary sanctions,” against those materially assisting the Cuban government.

Canadian figure skating coaching couple boasts astonishing 11 Olympic ice dance teams

The post-career success of Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon has been nothing short of dazzling and surely immensely lucrative.