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The landscape that taught us to see

The white pine stood at the edge of the lake, leaning out over the water, its branches bent by years of wind and weather. Beyond it stretched an expanse of blue water beneath a clear sky, a distant tree line and other pines rising along the rocky shoreline. From the deck above, the landscape seemed both expansive and remarkably still.

I had been looking at it for only a few moments when Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven entered the picture. Not literally, of course. But once the association appeared, I could not unsee it. The pine became The Jack Pine and The West Wind. The surrounding rocks, water and sky called up A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Franklin Carmichael and Lawren Harris. A landscape I had been looking at all weekend suddenly became part of a visual history Canadians have carried with them for more than a century.

Perhaps that is the Group of Seven’s greatest achievement. They did not simply paint the Canadian landscape. They changed the way we see it.

I was at the lake for a quiet weekend, reflecting on the cultural, community and development projects that occupy much of my work through Civic Muse. Increasingly, I see these pursuits as part of the same conversation — place and identity, how we understand it, care for it and decide what is worth carrying forward.

Free trips unusual for charities: experts

OTTAWA - In the wake of revelations that Finance Minister Bill Morneau and his family had overseas trips sponsored by the WE organization, experts in the charitable sector say covering a donor's travel costs is an unusual practice.

Morneau told the House of Commons finance committee last week he had freshly repaid WE Charity more than $41,000 in expenses for trips he and his family took to Kenya and Ecuador in 2017 to see and take part in some of its humanitarian work.

WE Charity said the trips were meant to be free and that covering expenses for potential sponsors is nothing out of the ordinary for its organization, or for the international development sector.

"From time to time, on a complimentary basis, WE Charity invites potential supporters to see the impact of its global projects," WE told The Canadian Press in a statement.

Wolseley perfumer given reprieve in dispute with city

A perfumer who sells fragrances from a store on the first floor of his home in Wolseley won’t have to close in mid-November after all.

Michael O’Malley says La Parfumerie can stay open while the municipal government processes a conditional use order, which he planned to submit Wednesday.

“If we have to go through city council again… I’ll need a lot of people from my community to show up,” O’Malley said. “I hate to have to keep doing this… I’m just incredibly grateful to the people of Winnipeg.”

He had feared he’d have to shutter the business, which he has operated in his 145 Evanson St. home for 27 years.

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Pandemic point man didn’t resign, exactly

The rumours of Paul Beauregard's demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated.

Email inboxes and phone lines were burning-hot Thursday morning with the news that Treasury Board Secretary Beauregard — arguably the most powerful bureaucrat in the Manitoba government and the point man for the province's pandemic response — had resigned his post while the province is still very much in the grips of a public-health crisis.

Beauregard is a controversial figure who been caught up in a scrap with the Opposition NDP over allegations he was improperly involved in the awarding of a contract to Bell MTS, his former employer. The political battle prompted Beauregard to file an unprecedented harassment and bullying complaint against an NDP MLA.

But even with all of Beauregard's baggage and the myriad problems with Manitoba's pandemic response, changing leadership mid-crisis would be a horrible blow to a government already suffering from a deficit in public confidence.