Tried-and-tested recipe adds to the festive moment

Ducks Unlimited makes province’s largest-ever conservation-land purchase

A Manitoba landscape that helped save the Giant Canada goose from extinction has now been permanently protected in the province’s largest conservation land purchase in history.

Ducks Unlimited Canada announced Tuesday in a virtual press conference that it has acquired a conservation easement for East Meadows Ranch, a more than 8,000-acre property near Lundar in Manitoba’s Interlake region, about 80 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, that includes wetlands, native prairie and bur oak savannah.

Ducks Unlimited called the property, now known as the Kennedy Field Station at East Meadows, one of Manitoba’s most ecologically diverse landscapes and said protecting it will contribute to the long-term health of Manitoba’s wildlife, biodiversity and natural heritage.

“The sheer size of the property is not that common in private ownership here in Manitoba, and to have that in a complete connected tract is just something that we’re not likely to see again or come available anytime soon,” said Mark Francis, Ducks Unlimited Canada’s manager of provincial operations.

Hydro’s planned outages turn out the lights for thousands across province

Business owners in the East Beaches area of Lake Winnipeg hauled out generators Wednesday after a planned Manitoba Hydro outage left thousands of residents and cottagers without power.

Lise Bourassa, who runs several stores in Grand Beach, had to rent generators to accommodate the eight-hour blackout, which affected the area from Beaconia to Victoria Beach as well as Sagkeeng First Nation, while Hydro crews fixed a pole that was damaged by fire in May .

Despite the spare power source, she was only able to open one of her stores during the outage and said it came at a bad time.

“I understand the importance of what Manitoba Hydro is doing, the problem all the businesses in this area are having is that our season is very short and to be shut down for a full day has a fairly big impact, plus they added cost of getting generators,” she wrote in a message to the Free Press. “We also had less than one week to make arrangements, find electricians and generators to be able to keep all the food safe.”

The election of our discontent

There’s an undercurrent of unhappiness running through the Winnipeg electorate as the municipal election day approaches.

One-half of Winnipeggers believe the city is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new Abacus Data poll, with nearly one-third unsure if Winnipeg is regressing or progressing.

Only 21 per cent of residents believe the city is on the right track, the Free Press-commissioned poll found.

That discontentment extends to how the city spends its tax dollars, with four in 10 Winnipeggers believing they receive poor value for what they pay in property taxes.

Norway's Ruud wins Olympic gold year after father's death

The decorated alpine athlete was disqualified from her first two races in Beijing, but still has plenty of events to come.

Uncanny acting and bittersweet script a fitting tribute to Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy, arguably one of the greatest comedy teams ever to grace the Vaudeville stage and screen, enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership. In fact, it lasted so long, it might as well have been a marriage.

That is the dramatic gist of this film by Jon S. Baird (Filth), who examines the duo in their career twilight, touring the music halls and theatres of England, circa 1953.

The Lancashire-born Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) has the advantage of being on home turf. Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly) is hobbled by health issues. While their routines are very much rooted in the English music hall tradition, they are past their prime. Feature films are the medium of choice for comedy duos. Laurel, who has a plaintive moment staring at a freshly installed billboard for the latest Abbott and Costello movie, is trying to cut a deal for a new film based on the legend of Robin Hood. It becomes increasingly obvious that the English producer he’s trying to contact is avoiding him.

Hardy is under different stresses, including failing health and an unhealthy penchant for the vices of drinking and gambling.