Make the snap count

Wartime birth amid the air raid sirens in Ukraine hospital

The Leafs have earned two shots at their first series win since 2004. Here’s hoping faithful fans, who truly deserve better, will be saying something other than “Good grief” in the end.

‘Forward guidance’ on Canadian climate targets

At last, some honesty in Canadian climate policy

Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke the truth last week about where greenhouse gas emissions were going in Canada: up, not down. This is the first time any prime minister has stated the reality of the country’s emissions trajectory. Until now, it’s all been about putting a positive gloss on far-off reduction goals and unrealistic ambitions.

The prime minister’s second instalment of “forward guidance”, as he calls it, focused on what’s ahead on energy and climate. It was a refreshing and overdue pivot in crafting a more realistic and durable climate policy for the country.

Here’s what he said: “I want to be clear on this point. The changes we have made will mean that our emissions will be higher in the next few years than they were projected to be under the previous government’s plan. But in my judgment, that plan was not sustainable over the long term.”

Province as prepared for devastating 2025 wildfires as it could have been: NDP

Manitoba government ministers defended the response to 2025’s deadly and devastating wildfire season Tuesday, insisting the province was as prepared as it could have been.

The government published a 20-page interim report, which includes new measures for 2026 and onwards, amid an ongoing after action review of Manitoba’s worst fire season in 30 years.

“We were as prepared as we could possibly have been for a season like we had,” Lisa Naylor, the minister responsible for the Emergency Management Organization, said at a news conference in Brandon.

“We hope we won’t see a season like that this year and, at the same time, we’re going to be even more prepared.”

Berkshire Hathaway, Manitoba-style

Omaha, Neb., has its “Oracle,” but Manitoba has its market miracle.

The legendary Warren Buffett transformed Berkshire Hathaway Inc. from a textile company into a wildly successful conglomerate that acquires great companies and generally takes a hands-off approach, letting them do what they do best.

And it’s been a very profitable strategy.

Manitoba’s market miracle is Exchange Income Corp. (TSX: EIF). A publicly traded conglomerate on the Toronto Stock Exchange, it has a similar strategy.

Quebec, Ontario chart own ways to COVID normalcy

TORONTO - The country's two largest provinces, with about 80 per cent of Canada's known cases of COVID-19, were taking different approaches to returning to normalcy amid federal projections on Tuesday that thousands more people would likely contract COVID-19 and hundreds more could die in the coming week.

Quebec, which has been hardest hit, reported 83 new fatal cases for a total of 1,682. However, Premier Francois Legault said although deaths were rising in long-term care homes, they were largely stable elsewhere.

As a result, Legault said stores outside the Montreal region could start reopening on Monday and in the city a week later. Primary schools and daycares are also to reopen starting May 11.

Ontario, on the other hand, has given no dates or schedule for lifting COVID restrictions, other than that schools will stay closed until at least the end of May. Premier Doug Ford has been adamant reopening depends on getting the virus spread under firm control.

Firefighters faced dangerous working conditions but didn't get enough respect

A new exhibit now being planned at the Fire Fighters Historical Museum of Winnipeg will tell the story of firefighters and the Winnipeg General Strike. The museum, a designated heritage site that served as an active fire hall from 1904-1990, is the first stop on the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike Driving and Walking Tour: 100th Anniversary Edition.

The Fire Fighters Museum is located at 56 Maple St. near Higgins Avenue and the former Canadian Pacific Railway station, which today is the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg. This train station was a major point of arrival for tens of thousands of newcomers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of this, the fire hall was planned as a showpiece for the burgeoning city of Winnipeg. The building features ornate stained glass windows and pressed tin ceiling tiles decorated with firemen’s speaking trumpets. It is one of the oldest and most beautiful fire stations remaining in Canada, and its collections, which date to the days of horse-drawn carriages, steam-powered fire apparatus and bronze fire nozzles, are second to none.

Winnipeg firefighters were no strangers to labour activism in 1919. Their working life fostered a culture of caring, and they had been protecting one another on the job since the city’s first volunteer fire brigade formed in 1874. It was a time before universal health care, employment insurance and pensions provided any kind of social safety net. And so, like other workers, firefighters contributed to their own mutual benefit plan — the Winnipeg Firemen’s Benevolent Association. This society provided financial assistance to its members in times of sickness, injury and death.

Firefighting was difficult and dangerous work. Firemen, as they were called at the time, were required to live, make their meals and sleep at the fire hall. They worked 21 hours a day, seven days a week. They were admired for their bravery, skill and dedication, but they received little pay and could be fired for any reason. The rapid growth of Winnipeg’s population — from more than 40,000 residents in 1900 to almost 180,000 by 1920 — and the expansion of the city’s industrial and retail properties during these years made the demands of the job even harder.