Alberta can thrive within Canada

Alberta’s independence debate deserves a sober examination of the risks of national division.

Ukraine offers an important cautionary example of how separatist movements can be exploited by foreign powers to advance their own strategic interests. Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine in 2014 transformed separatist unrest into a prolonged armed conflict, causing civilian deaths, economic disruption and instability.

Alberta’s circumstances are very different, but the broader lesson is that separatism can create vulnerabilities to foreign interference.

Province must also retain docs

Re: Ottawa offers $6M to hire 90 new doctors (Oct. 15)

The federal government’s $6 million commitment to help Manitoba recruit up to 90 additional family doctors by 2028–29 is welcome news, but it should not be mistaken for a solution to the province’s persistent physician shortage.

The question is not simply how many doctors Manitoba can recruit, but how many it can retain —and whether patients will actually have better access to care as a result.

Concern over closure

As advocates for seniors in Manitoba, CARP Manitoba (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) is deeply concerned about the closure of the Lions Club Charleswood Adult Day Club.

This closure will have a significant impact on seniors in the community who rely on the Adult Day Club for social connection, companionship, meaningful activities and stimulation. It will also place additional pressure on other Adult Day Clubs throughout the city, many of which are already experiencing increased demand and are now being required to establish waiting lists.

Families of affected seniors are understandably concerned that, without access to this important community-based support, their loved ones may eventually require admission to personal care homes. Adult Day Clubs play an important role in helping seniors remain independent, connected to their communities and living in their own homes for as long as possible.

Support for combined approach

Re: Balanced drug blitz pays off (Oct. 14)

Your news and reporting on the positive results of co-ordinated outreach coupled with enforcement combining social, medical and police services is important progress towards a safer and healthier Winnipeg.

As is often stated and conclusively researched, the poverty, mental health, addictions and desperation of too many of our brothers and sisters on the streets is a very complex dilemma. Let’s really get behind and support these new initiatives with vigour and sustained support through this combined co-operation with front-line engagement coalition partners.

Where’s the vision?

Who is Winnipeg’s great visionary leader?

This year, a number of candidates have entered Winnipeg’s mayoral race. Important issues are being debated, including public safety, transportation and taxes. Yet, amid the campaigning and political mudslinging, I find myself asking a much bigger question: Who has a compelling vision for what Winnipeg could become?

So far, I have yet to hear it.

Find some middle ground

There’s an old house in Wolseley where magic happens. It’s where a future Rhodes Scholar grew up. It’s where a future First Nations doctor worked part-time as a teenager. And it’s where a master perfumer blends bewitching scents.

It’s called La Parfumerie. Blink and you’ll miss it. There’s no neon sign over the porch, draped with lush green vines. Its customers enter through a front garden decorated with carefully tended flowers.

But after 27 years at the same location, this little home business will soon be forced to shut down. Why? Because the city says it must either stop serving walk-in customers or make significant renovations to bring it into compliance with rules designed for bigger retailers.

Investing in adult vaccines

Last week, provincial and territorial health ministers held an emergency meeting on the looming expiration of federal health funding and the financial pressures facing health systems across the country.

As they gather again in Winnipeg later this month, there is a critical piece missing from the conversation — prevention.

Canada has a strong public-health tradition, but its gains cannot be taken for granted. In 2021, Canada reported zero measles cases. By 2025, more than 5,400 cases had been reported, costing Canada its measles elimination status and Manitoba saw this firsthand.

Manitoba Hydro at it again

As a former resident of Windsor Park, I often ride my bicycle through the neighbourhood or walk the shaded pathway from Elizabeth Road to Cottonwood Drive. It’s a favourite walkway for residents with dogs as well. While passing the pathway at Elizabeth Road the other day I was dismayed to see crews clear-cutting the mature trees between the pathway and the CPKC tracks that stretch the length of Archibald Street.

At first I thought that the crews were clearing out the dense bushes and trees at the start of the pathway. I made a note to return to see if that was all that was going to be done. (When) I drove by the trees had been clear-cut to the end of the first street and access point to it, much to my dismay and horror. I parked my car and went to speak with a worker doing the tree removal.

I was informed that it was a Hydro corridor and that the work would clear-cut every tree between Elizabeth Road and Cottonwood Road. Perhaps the plan is to continue on through Southdale and Island Lakes. At a time of diminishing tree canopies around Winnipeg and the drive to plant a million trees, this decision is outrageous and lacks respect for our current climate situation and neighbourhood esthetics.

A call for digital revolution

Re: MPI on new path after Project Nova debacle (Oct. 6)

Computer scientist Melvin Conway once stated, “Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.”

This is seen clearly in the Manitoba government’s online service. The Manitoba government has a “Data MB” portal to view government data sets, but data about vehicle collisions is only accessible from Manitoba Public Insurance’s Manitoba Collision Dashboard. If you need to find information on a Manitoba surgeon, that information is on Shared Health’s website, but if you need surgical wait times, that’s on the main government website.

On diet and humanity

Re: “Maybe ASI will need us” (Letters, Oct. 5)

Mr. Martin, humans eating animals is not part of the circle of life. Many cultures with abundant plant resources, or for religious beliefs, have historically subsisted on largely or strictly vegetarian diets. Likewise, in extreme environments such as the Arctic, Inuit rely heavily on animal products due to the near-absence of arable land. Humans adapt locally to their environments and do not have a single ancestral diet.

Clearly vegetarian or vegan diets are not fringe, as evidenced by plant-based products on main-stream grocery store shelves. To suggest the Free Press is morally endorsing a fringe diet is rubbish, (the newspaper) merely gives the public a platform for diverse opinions, thus generating individual, thought-provoking ideas and conversations — a practice that is desperately needed these days.

Fighting the good fight

Re: Transit, roads and city council’s priorities (Oct. 2)

Many thanks to Erna Buffie for once again speaking up for transit.

When will Winnipeg finally make the shift from a car-dependent culture to a greener and more efficient way?

A morning in the life …

My very first lesson does not start when I walk into that lecture hall, oh no — it starts long before. It begins when I walk to my car, check the estimated arrival time to the University of Manitoba and hope that Winnipeg traffic agrees with it.

A drive that appears completely manageable changes almost immediately when I’m greeted by a tsunami of orange pylons and a line of cars that appears to go on forever. Traffic moves by the inch, lanes magically disappear and the detour I took yesterday now has a detour of its own. These factors make me do a calculation that I have become all too familiar with. How late can I arrive and still find parking, run to my class across campus and get to class with enough time left to make it worth it?

I have grown used to people saying, “Why not just leave earlier?” I do. But when I’m already leaving for my 8:30 a.m. class at 7 a.m., there’s only so much I can do. This drive that some would think is relaxing is one that feels like an assignment that I didn’t know I had to complete and is due at 8:30 a.m.

Are clinical psychologists next?

Re: Province hires 17 psychiatrists to work in Winnipeg, Selkirk (Sept. 25)

Manitoba’s government has shown that it knows how to solve a specialist staffing crisis in health care. Clinical psychologists are still left to wonder when it will be their turn.

The Manitoba Psychological Society (MPS) welcomes the recent announcement of 17 new psychiatrists in the public system. Any investment in mental health deserves to be celebrated, especially in light of the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health’s report card that was released in August 2026. Manitoba received overall grades of F and D for mental health and substance use health, respectively. Although disappointing, this is not surprising given that Manitoba spends five to six per cent of its health budget on mental health and addictions, about half the recommended rate of 12 per cent.

Many thanks

My life changed the day after Thanksgiving, 1967. My wife and I crossed the bridge at Fort Francis, Ont., and were accepted into Canada; she was a citizen and I was a draft dodger. We went to Winnipeg, looked for work and found rooms upstairs in a nice home owned by an older couple.

I remember the wind and cold that December as I went around town, failing to find a job. But our small savings dwindled fast and, after Christmas, we were forced to make a tough decision, to stay or go.

I am almost 80 now and I have never since found myself in such a hard spot. A few days after paying our next months’ rent, I had to ask our hosts for our rent back. They were due it and they had earned it; I had no rightful claim on it.

Public servants and elections

We currently are in the midst of elections, mostly on the municipal level. Voters are reviewing policies and promises in anticipation of new programs and commitments that hopefully will enhance their daily life.

While those seeking political office live in anxiety during this time as they await their electoral fate, so too do many civil servants as election results will also determine their futures.

It is these civil servants who we rarely think of at election time.