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Additional candidates register for Winnipeg’s fall election

Every city council ward is set to have a contested race in the Oct. 28 municipal election, barring any withdrawals, after additional candidates registered for two contests.

Dennis Bayomi is running in Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood, where Evan Duncan is the incumbent candidate.

Bayomi is president and co-deputy leader of the Green Party of Manitoba. He’s run for the Greens in provincial and federal elections.

Fred Morris registered to run against incumbent Cindy Gilroy in Daniel McIntyre.

Ehnes, WSO orchestrate joyous reunion

World-renowned superstar violinist James Ehnes came home Saturday night as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra officially launched its milestone 75th season with the Brandon-born musician as the featured guest artist.

The inaugural concert in the (A)bsolute Classics series led by Daniel Raiskin showcased the now Florida-based fiddler in Beethoven’s “Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61,” with the Centennial Concert Hall filled to the rafters with 2,015 listeners — notably the largest in-person crowd since the global pandemic first shuttered the world in March 2020 — already buzzing with excitement.

After WSO executive director Angela Birdsell welcomed the mixed generation audience with a heartfelt “it gives me hope we are all witnessing the return of live performance for good,” Raiskin led the players through a hushed “Prayer for Ukraine,” by Kyiv-born composer Valentin Silvestrov in 2014 — even more timely and needed than ever.

Then Ehnes strode onstage with his gleaming 1715 “Marsick” Stradivarius in hand, immediately greeted like a conquering hero as one of the world’s most sought-after violinists on the international stage. It’s also noteworthy that the multi-award-winning musician, who “grew up” with the WSO, and continues to perform with major orchestras worldwide in addition to his inestimable chamber music and recording career, marked his professional debut in 1990 with this very same orchestra under the baton of the late, great Bramwell Tovey.

Renaming schools a ‘teachable moment’ in Canada’s history

Niji Mahkwa School is an anomaly — not only because of its holistic programming or because it is one of few schools in the province’s largest division whose name is a nod to an Indigenous concept.

Nearly 30 years after the Winnipeg elementary school was given its name by a student who dreamt of it and elders who endorsed it, the values Niji Mahkwa represents still reflect ones held today by students, teachers and families alike.

The translation of the Anishinaabemowin phrase into English is, “my friend the bear,” or “brother, sister bear.”

“Our names tell us who we are and where we come from, and so when we look at this name, it tells us about the bear — it represents strength and healing,” said Helen Robinson-Settee, a former teacher-librarian who worked at the school when it was renamed in the mid-90s.

Jeff Hamilton

After a slew of injuries playing hockey that included breaks to the wrist, arm, and collar bone; a tear of the medial collateral ligament in both knees; as well as a collapsed lung, Jeff figured it was a good idea to take his interest in sports off the ice and in to the classroom.

Farmers' markets sprouting all over the city, bringing producers and consumers together

The happiest way to bring people together is with food. Suddenly, people want to talk and share. Those two things are at the heart of farmer’s markets in and around Winnipeg and the reason why they are cropping up everywhere.

Clearly, there are needs being met all around — the farmers need customers and a place to sell from; consumers want to know more about the food they buy and who they are buying from; and communities want to come together and need places to do it.

Those needs — commercial, social, nutritional and even political — are increasingly being met inside Winnipeg’s city limits.

Evan Comstock, the co-ordinator for the Bronx Park Farmers’ Market says their market at Bronx Park Community Centre, 720 Henderson Hwy., is having a great year.