Don’t let lake lover drift away without a call

Five-star review of Winkler Bible Camp

Nile Fehr’s voice reaches another level of excitement when he talks about one particular aspect of Winkler Bible Camp: the pizza.

“The pizza? Chef’s kiss,” explained the nine-year-old.

“The pepperoni pizza was so good. It was so cheesy, there was so much pepperoni on there. You know when you go to a restaurant and they have pizza on the menu and you have it and it’s like the best pizza? Pizza is usually better when it’s made at restaurants, like, there’s a method.

“But I think (this camp) found the method that makes it taste better.”

TV loses a visionary showrunner

Despite the respectful, nostalgic nods that are occasionally afforded to television’s long-ago, black-and-white past, there is simply no disputing that we — the binge-watching, Netflix-and-chilling, various-device-viewing generation — are living in TV’s golden age.

Not only is more content being created now than ever before, but the best of what is available to viewers of conventional broadcast TV, cable networks and streaming services is being produced at a level of quality that continually pushes boundaries, raises standards and challenges viewers on an almost-weekly basis to reconsider what qualifies as great.

And it’s worth noting, in this week when television lost one of its most noteworthy and powerful creative forces, just how significant Steven Bochco was in the modern evolution of the medium.

Simply put, Bochco, who died Sunday at age 74 after a lengthy battle with leukemia, helped set the stage for the current wave of scripted-TV excellence, particularly in the drama-series realm. Whatever it is that you consider to be the small screen’s best, from Game of Thrones to Breaking Bad to House of Cards to This Is Us, the roots of its success can be found in Bochco’s primetime productions of the 1980s and ’90s.

Fighting tariffs with the power of boycotts

Speaking this week about an important deadline for a renewal of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement on trade, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew promised that Manitoba will continue to keep American booze off the shelves of government liquor stores if a fair deal cannot be reached.

“No CUSMA, no booze-ma,” Kinew said with poetic flair.

Manitoba is not alone in this threat.

Although he lacks Kinew’s poetry, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he was only willing to allow U.S. wine, beer and spirits back onto the shelves of government liquor stores if the U.S. scaled back the 50 per cent tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose on Aug. 19.

New executive director has big dreams for WSO

Angela Birdsell was in grade 3 or 4 when she saw the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for the first time.

It was during a school field trip to an afternoon rehearsal at the Centennial Concert Hall, which, in the 1970s, was still fairly new. Birdsell, who would have been just eight or nine at the time, was struck by the grandness of the hall, the plushness of the blood-red carpet and those pleasing rows of red seats.

But it was the moment when the musicians raised their instruments that left the most indelible impression.

“I remember just being electrified by the sound of the orchestra tuning up,” she says. “It just opened my little psyche to a whole other world out there.”

Good deal or no deal? Carney’s crucible

“No deal is better than a bad deal.”

This is the sentence that will define Prime Minister Mark Carney’s time in government.

Uttered last year to explain away the delays in negotiating a new trade arrangement with the United States amidst the high expectations of Carney’s election, it is now the benchmark against which he and his Liberal government are going to be measured. This time next week, we will know if he meant it. With all the consequences that ensue.

By then, we will have reached President Donald Trump’s Aug. 19 deadline threat to impose new 50 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian exports. This is not going down well with Canadians. Chief negotiator Janice Charette is reported as having called that a “cliff” in sessions with her U.S. counterparts. That means negotiations fall off and fail.

Can we have a G20 without Russia? Chrystia Freeland sounds ready to give it a try

“It is the case that the G20 can’t function effectively with Russia at the table, and with Russia in the room. It’s an absurd situation,” said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.