Ontario hits record 3,328 new COVID-19 cases, 56 deaths

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I was at a party with my younger boyfriend, and I overheard him in another room talking loudly with his friends.

They were all bombed, guzzling beer and rating their girlfriends’ looks. I was listening for my guy to chime in. He finally said I was “a five without makeup, a 6 1/2 with it, but her great personality makes up for the rest.”

I can’t believe he would say that to other people, but he was drinking a lot — disgusting. I’m thinking of leaving him. What do you think?

— ‘Five Without Makeup,’ Osborne Village

Post-election reflection

The civic election offered both predictable and surprising results. The re-election of Mayor Scott Gillingham and the defeat of Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt were anticipated.

What was surprising was that, in addition to Wyatt, three other incumbents lost their bids for re-election. Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan), Ross Eadie (Mynarski) and Shawn Dobson (St. James) all went down to defeat, and it is clear to me their replacements will bring stronger voices to city hall.

A total of nine new councillors is a seismic shift in Winnipeg civic politics, not seen since the establishment of the 15-member council some 35 years ago. What is most interesting is the political leanings of the new councillors and how they will work with Mayor Gillingham.

My grandfather, Ben W. Kert, had a women’s dress shop along Queen Street in Sault Ste. Marie where a number of Jewish men, many of them “Greenies” from the old country, owned and operated women’s haberdasheries with variable success.

Ben had come from Quebec via Northern Manitoba and Fort Frances, a singular man whose French was as good as his English and whose great heart filled my childhood with glory.

Unlike the other Jewish store owners, Ben W. was born in Trois-Rivières, the only male child who survived with five or six sisters born ahead of him.

Legend has it that my grandfather’s arrival and survival were celebrated with the nickname Sonny. When he left home at 15 (rumour claims his stepmother threw him out) and arrived in Montreal, his first employer would not accept the nickname, so my grandfather invented Ben W. on the spot. The W. never stood for anything. When he died, my mother discovered that his first name was actually Harry.