Editorials

Opinion

The Associated Press files Vaccine skepticism is mostly to blame for the recent resurgence of measles in Manitoba. The highly communicable disease had been eradicated.

Outbreak should never have happened

Editorial 4 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

The headline offered a vague sense that something had been accomplished, but it most certainly did not describe anything worth celebrating:

“Manitoba declares measles outbreak over.”

The news item in the Oct. 17 Free Press noted provincial public health officials had confirmed Manitoba’s last laboratory-confirmed case of measles was identified in August, and that the absence of any new cases since had allowed for the aforementioned declaration.

The end of the outbreak — which began in February 2025 and included a significant stretch this year during which Manitoba experienced more measles cases than any other province — is certainly worth noting. But it bears reminding that the real story here is that this province, and others across Canada, experienced a resurgence of this highly communicable but successfully eradicated disease in the first place.

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Opinion

Free Press files Satvir Jatana is president and CEO of Manitoba Public Insurance, which has asked for a 2.38 per cent rate increase for 2027-28.

MPI gambles with low rate request

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

MPI gambles with low rate request

Editorial 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

It sounds a bit like a gamble from a player in an industry that is almost pathologically averse to gambling.

Manitoba Public Insurance is currently going through the Public Utilities Board process to set car insurance rates for 2027-28, and it’s asking the PUB to approve a 2.38 rate hike.

As a provincially-run insurance business, MPI is already a bit of an outlier, because, through its government masters, it’s answerable to the Manitoba public in a way that private insurers aren’t.

Private insurers spend a fortune calculating risk, offsetting that risk with reinsurance to spread it out across the insurance spectrum, and always finding a way to ensure there’s a profit margin built in.

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Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Opinion

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel speaks to media at a meeting of Canadian health ministers in Winnipeg on Oct. 16.

Feds hold back on stable health funding

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Feds hold back on stable health funding

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026

The federal government wants provinces to improve health care, expand treatment services and find better ways to deliver care. But it’s refusing to provide provincial governments with the one thing they need most to plan for the future: stable, predictable funding.

That’s not a serious way to manage public health care.

Provincial and territorial health ministers gathered in Winnipeg last week hoping to secure long-term federal funding commitments to help manage mounting pressures on their health-care systems. They left with little more than a promise to keep talking.

Ottawa agreed to extend a $1.2-billion annual funding agreement for mental-health and substance-use treatment, home care and community care by one year. That’s welcome, but it hardly provides the certainty provinces need to maintain existing programs, never mind expand services to meet growing demand.

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Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026

Opinion

The Canadian Press Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel recently announced funding for Manitoba to hire more doctors.

Community-based care a move in the right direction

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Community-based care a move in the right direction

Editorial 4 minute read Monday, Oct. 19, 2026

It’s not a case of reinventing the wheel. It’s a case of recognizing how the wheel actually works and realizing that a symptom can be far away from the whole illness.

And it is a pragmatic, practical, numbers-based solution for a growing problem.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced that the province would be funding 103 community-based care spaces in Winnipeg. The spaces will be for patients who need shelter or specialized supports — and can’t be discharged from much-needed hospital beds without it.

“We’re talking about, in some cases, some Manitobans, some patients who have been waiting in (hospital) beds for the right place to go in communities for hundreds, if not thousands of days,” Asagwara said. “Some folks with very complex needs are now going to get the care they need in community.”

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Monday, Oct. 19, 2026

Opinion

JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS Prime Minister Mark Carney meets University of Calgary students on Oct. 15.

The threat from outside Canada

Dan Lett 4 minute read Preview

The threat from outside Canada

Dan Lett 4 minute read Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026

The 10-question referendum being held in Alberta on Monday, Oct. 19, is not the first time the unity of Canada has been threatened by a vote within one province. It is, however, the first referendum of this type to take place in an age of unfettered social media misinformation and deliberate foreign interference.

From mischievous comments by U.S. President Donald Trump about making Canada the 51st state to technology trillionaire Elon Musk’s urgings to Quebec and Alberta to separate, there are clear signs foreign interests are trying to influence Monday’s vote. But there are also less-obvious efforts at work to influence the referendum and destabilize Canada.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and independent think-tanks such as the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Data and Conflict at the University of Regina have documented incidents involving Russian-linked automated content farms posting thousands of misleading articles about the referendum campaign on social media platforms. The content, CSIS has said, focuses on erroneous claims about the benefits of separation and the liabilities of remaining in Canada.

In the face of all that activity, Prime Minister Mark Carney has been alarmingly unconcerned. Campaigning in Alberta this week, Carney said Ottawa is closely monitoring disinformation campaigns. He added that, in his conversations with foreign governments, all have agreed to stand down from any activities that might be perceived as threats to democracy.

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Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026

Opinion

The Associated Press files U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted to livestream the upcoming execution of Nidal Hasan.

Capital punishment as macabre theatre

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Capital punishment as macabre theatre

Editorial 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

There was already enough to write about the question of capital punishment when the State of Tennessee attempted to execute Christa Pike.

Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, but her execution on Sept. 30 did not go as planned — she survived, despite two lethal injections of pentobarbital, and was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Pike was released from hospital and sent back to the same prison where she has been incarcerated for the last 30 years, ever since she was convicted — as an 18-year-old — of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

Pike faces a long recovery, and an uncertain one. Tennessee assistant attorney general Will Ayers has not said if the state will attempt to execute Pike again, but Gov. Bill Lee has halted all executions this year and ordered an independent review of what went wrong.

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Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

Opinion

Free Press files An e-scooter user in Assiniboine Park.

Law will curb e-scooter enthusiasts

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Law will curb e-scooter enthusiasts

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026

For people concerned about safety on Manitoba’s sidewalks and roadways, the province’s announcement that new rules will be introduced next year regarding the use of e-scooters and other personal electric vehicles (PEVs) was no doubt met with an enthusiastic “It’s about time.”

As their popularity and their presence among pedestrians on sidewalks and/or motor vehicles on the road has increased steadily, so have reports of close calls or, even worse, collisions involving e-scooters or other PEVs — including electric skateboards, hoverboards and unicycles — being operated imprudently and at unsafe speeds.

Traffic laws urgently need to be updated to govern the use of these conveyances, which up until now have remained in a regulatory grey area that has allowed PEVs to operate largely without guidelines and outside conventional avenues of traffic-safety enforcement. Accordingly, updates regarding PEV use will be included in the Highway Traffic Act in 2027.

The new legislation will govern such areas as mandatory helmet use, age restrictions, where PEVs can lawfully operate and the maximum speed at which they can travel (25 km/h). The aim of the new law, according to the province’s website, is “to help keep Manitobans safe when sharing roads, paths, and other public spaces.”

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Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026

Opinion

Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Files Grant Heather (left), manager of vehicles for hire at the City of Winnipeg, and Satvir Jatana, president and CEO of Manitoba Public Insurance, speak to media about ride-share insurance fraud.

MPI not sleeping on ride-share fraud

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

MPI not sleeping on ride-share fraud

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026

Rust never sleeps.

You may remember those words as the title of a Neil Young and Crazy Horse album from 1979. You might even recognize an even older use of the words as an advertising slogan for anti-rust paint Rust-Oleum.

Or you might be more familiar with the overall concept behind the saying.

That is, that corrosion is a continuous thing that requires constant attention and action, rather than one simple fix. You might even look at it specifically from the point of view of society, as defined by Quora: “neglect, decadence, or entropy accumulate quietly; vigilance and maintenance of institutions or values are necessary.”

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Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026

Opinion

FREE PRESS Files The forecast for Manitoba Hydro? Pray for rain, snow and then more rain.

Hydro’s unpredictable fortunes

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Hydro’s unpredictable fortunes

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026

Hope for rain. Or snow. Or both.

There’s a truism buried deep in a financial outlook in Manitoba Hydro’s 2025-26 annual report, released in late September: “Manitoba Hydro’s net income is highly dependent on several uncontrollable factors.”

Those factors include the risk of drought reducing hydroelectric production and sales (a situation that means the utility will have to purchase more power, especially in winter), the rate of inflation, the actual cost of purchased electricity and increased interest rates that would mean Hydro will have to spend more servicing its $26.55 billion debt.

The report outlines that several of those factors came together during the utility’s last full fiscal year — along with huge costs to replace equipment damaged in a long, dry summer of forest fires.

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Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026

Opinion

The New York Times Elon Musk

Musk’s meddlesome trolling

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Musk’s meddlesome trolling

Editorial 4 minute read Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026

It seems obvious the world’s first trillionaire thought he was helping separatists within the Canadian federation when he encouraged three provinces — Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec — to leave Canada.

Unfortunately for Elon Musk, a man suffering from a profound deficit of self-awareness, his comments may only help those who want to keep the country together.

Musk entered the national unity debate on Wednesday, two days after the pro-independence Parti Quebecois was returned to power in Quebec with a minority mandate. The PQ has promised to hold a third referendum on separation at some point in its current term.

Musk — who has a Canadian mother and attended university in Ontario — took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter (which he owns) and encouraged Quebec to forge ahead with plans to separate. He said Alberta — which will hold a vote this fall on whether to hold a binding referendum on separation — and Saskatchewan should follow suit.

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Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026

Opinion

‘Please excuse us from writing these notes …’

‘Please excuse us from writing these notes …’

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

‘Please excuse us from writing these notes …’

Editorial 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 9, 2026

It’s a common-sense prescription for the health-care system. The only wonder is that it took so long to happen.

On Oct. 1, new provincial legislation came into effect that will stop employers from requiring employees to get a sick note from a physician unless the employee has been absent for more than a week or has called in sick 10 or more times in a calendar year.

And the legislation could have a big effect.

Doctors Manitoba has calculated that its members write over 600,000 sick notes every year — a process that costs the provincial health-care system approximately $8 million annually. And the effort doesn’t even help sick workers get better: one-third of sick notes are written for patients who don’t even have symptoms anymore, making them little more than a comfortable fiction. To put it simply, doctors have to trust that a symptom-less patient was sick and write a note saying they were ill, in order to satisfy an employer who doesn’t share that same level of trust.

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Friday, Oct. 9, 2026

Opinion

Free Press files Mayor Scott Gillingham has so far stayed out of the fray of insinuations and allegations made by challengers in the current election campaign.

All sideshow, little substance

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

All sideshow, little substance

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026

Well, there’s one thing that can be said about Winnipeg’s 2026 mayoral race that sets it apart from most previous campaigns for city council’s top position:

It isn’t boring.

In most civic elections, the power of incumbency and/or familiarity gives one mayoral candidate such a profound advantage that the outcome is all but a foregone conclusion and the lead-up to voting day becomes both uninteresting and largely irrelevant.

This year’s race, to the contrary, has been noteworthy for the unusual level of friction, controversy and mud-slinging that has been injected into the early part of the campaign.

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Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026

Opinion

Ruth Bonneville / Free Press The volunteer Prison Libraries Committee was informed last month its monthly pop-up library at Manitoba Youth Centre is no longer required.

Youth centre library cancellation baffles

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Youth centre library cancellation baffles

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026

It’s difficult to understand why Manitoba Corrections would shut down a library program that cost taxpayers nothing, was popular with young inmates and was designed to help them learn.

But that is what happened at the Manitoba Youth Centre, where a volunteer-run pop-up library has been cancelled by the province.

The Prison Libraries Committee, part of the Manitoba Library Association, provided the program at no cost to Corrections. Once a month, volunteer librarians brought books into the youth centre, helped young people find reading material, assisted with school research and provided something that can be in short supply in a correctional institution — positive interaction with people from outside its walls.

The program became so popular that the youth centre asked for it to be offered more frequently.

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Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026

Opinion

Free Press file photo Striking Dynacare employees have been declared “essential workers” by the Manitoba Labour Board.

Essential workers ruling raises questions

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Essential workers ruling raises questions

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026

Ever been to a Dynacare clinic? Most of us have been. It’s an amazing demographic and ethnic slice of the city we’ve become. Old patients. Young patients. New arrivals. Long-time Canadians. People who know the ropes — others who are startled by the crowds and the noise and the lockstep forward motion of professionals doing what they have been trained to do. It seems, all at the same time, both chaotic and diagnostic, as names of patients are steadily called out and thousands of tests are performed.

But Dynacare is at the centre of a new kind of test and this time, we’re all in the test tube together.

It’s the first real test for new labour law put in place by the government of Premier Wab Kinew in 2024 — a law that redefined what essential services are for provincially-regulated workplaces. Under this law, companies and their employee and unions must have an agreement of which employees are essential — which ones must stay on the job during a legal strike for the protection of the health and safety of the public.

Dynacare had that kind of essential employee agreement with its staff and union — the company and the union had agreed the employees were not essential.

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Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026

Opinion

INSTAGRAM Prediction contracts let you ‘invest’ in whether Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry will get married.

Broadening prediction-market gambling a bad idea

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Broadening prediction-market gambling a bad idea

Editorial 4 minute read Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026

Let’s make a prediction: sooner or later, when Canadian governments find a way to take their own cut of the action, prediction-contract gambling on everything from sports to entertainment to political decisions is going to come to Canada.

And that’s a horrible, dangerous, pernicious idea.

Unless you have particular access to information — either inside information or strategic information based on skills or education — you’re not likely to make money at it. In fact, structurally, you’re likely to lose. In prediction markets, you basically pay an amount, plus fees from the company involved, to bet on whether something will or will not happen within a certain time frame. The amount you pay for your contract depends on how other people are also betting.

As Wealthsimple describes it, “You buy whichever side you think is right. Prices move with demand, so if the market leans towards one outcome, the more that side costs. If a lot of people are backing the TSX to finish above 38,000, yes gets more expensive and no gets cheaper.”

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Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026

Opinion

FILE The OpenAI logo displayed on a cell phone.

Time for AI guardrails is right now

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Time for AI guardrails is right now

Editorial 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 2, 2026

The genie is most definitely out of the bottle.

And while there’s little chance of putting it back in, we should be very concerned that the people who released it from the bottle are now frantically warning us that it has become disinclined to do their — or our — bidding and seems instead to be increasingly intent on following its own whims and granting wishes to itself.

The figurative genie, in this case, is artificial intelligence, or AI, and in recent weeks many of the tech geniuses responsible for its development and introduction into the digital-information realm have begun asking the U.S. government and even the United Nations to impose limits on the pace and breadth of its growth.

Their fear is that, as AI very quickly continues to advance and develops the ability to make independent decisions and essentially think for itself, it will cease to be a tool controlled by its creators and instead will become a species unto itself that might eventually decide it’s better off without humans continually messing things up.

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Friday, Oct. 2, 2026

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