‘Gender parity in municipal leadership is important and it’s a priority’: AMM president

This municipal election has brought a record number of female candidates and elected officials, with one municipal leader stating that gender parity is important in civic office.

“We promote many things, but clearly it goes back to…gender parity in municipal leadership is important and it’s a priority,” said Kathy Valentino, president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

“And it’s a priority because the more gender parity and diverseness around a council table, it strengthens the municipalities when the decision makers have a different look at things and you have many different looks in different ways.”

All the women interviewed agreed with Valentino’s diversity comment.

Comedian Matt Falk coming to Steinbach for Homegrown

The late great Robin Williams once said, “Never pick a fight with an ugly person, they’ve got nothing to lose.”

Now that you’re in a good mood, I’ll put you into an even better mood as comedian Matt Falk is coming to Steinbach for the Steinbach Arts Council’s Homegrown event where he’ll share his life stories and its funnier moments from the past year.

“I’ve been really happy with the show. Audiences have found it relatable and fun, which has been great for me. I’m going to try some new stuff and ultimately, I think that the goal is – above everything else – is that I want that audience to be laughing the entire time,” he said.

Falk has been honing his skill for the past 20 years. What started out as a way to deal with his anxiety and ADHD as a child by making people laugh to get attention and a dopamine hit, turned into a full-time career.

Steinbach Legion moves Remembrance Day service to Southeast Event Centre

The Royal Canadian Legion is holding the Remembrance Day service on Nov. 11 at the Southeast Event Centre for the first time.

“We’re pretty excited about this year’s event. We are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion in Canada and the 80th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion branch here in Steinbach,” Bill Richards, president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 190, said.

The event will be held at the Centre’s SCU Gymnasium and Hall. The doors will open at 10:15 a.m., and the service will begin at 11 a.m.

“For the past years, we’ve noticed an increase in the number of people wanting to attend the service,” Richards said. “When I first became a member of this particular branch, we would maybe have 200, sometimes 150, and now we’re at 500.”

Niverville Nighthawks recognized by MJHL

The Niverville Nighthawks became mainstays in this week’s Mantioba Junior Hockey League Awards.

Owen Murray, who was with team MJHL at the Western All-Star Showcase this week, was named the league’s Chevrolet rookie of the month, while Marlen Edwards and Ben Chornomydz were recognized as two of the league’s three stars of the week.

Murray, a 2010-born forward from Winnipeg, has 13 points in 14 games this season, as the 16-year-old puts together a memorable start to his junior career.

Last year with the Winnipeg Bruins U18 AAA team he had 73 points in just 33 games.

University of Manitoba students explore rural law careers during Steinbach visit

Eleven of the 12 University of Manitoba law students who visited a Steinbach law firm Friday are committed to working in rural Manitoba, program organizer Dr. Laura Reimer said.

The students attended the second Rural and Regional Law Day at Smith Neufeld Jodoin LLP, part of the faculty of law’s Justice Grows Here program.

Reimer, executive director of program development and strategic initiatives at the faculty, said she started the program after meeting Dr. Dan Wilson of the University of Calgary’s faculty of law three years ago and discussed their concern that young lawyers want to stay in cities, while people outside the big urban centres lack adequate legal services.

“What we really wanted was students to have an opportunity to drive across our beautiful prairie and see it in the fall, when the fields are harvested and the weather’s beautiful,” Reimer said.

SPORTS FLASHBACK 1988: Thanks for the help, Bombers

Years down the road, I’ll be able to tell people that I played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers when they won their first game in 1988.

Of course, I won’t mention it was slow-pitch softball we were playing, or that the Bombers let me bat once, so we wouldn’t beat the other team too badly.

Never bother them with too much detail, I say. When there’s too much detail, people lose interest and quit listening. Just the facts, that’s what I always say.

The fact is, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers deserve a vote of thanks for their performance on the softball field.

Blatz part of Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2026

Add another hall of fame to David Blatz’s legendary career.

Already a part of the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the Carillon Sultans 1996-2003/Stonewall Blue Jays 2003-2008 and a part of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for his work with the 2011 Pan-Am Games Team Canada baseball team, the Steinbach-based athletic therapist will be inducted as an individual to the provincial hall of fame.

Blatz was a trainer with the Canadian Pan-Am team five times and the World Baseball Classic four times. He is currently the head athletic therapist for Team Canada baseball.

Joining Blatz as part of the class of 2026 are;

COLUMN: Tales from the Gravel Ridge – Finding means of keeping in touch

Memories of my early childhood highlight the importance, and indeed the absolute necessity of finding ways of being in contact with others. Such communication might well be by means of conveying a message from one person to another individual by means of an intermediary, or a third party.

My husband and I recently attended a conference hosted by The Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg, with the title of “Long-Distance Relationships Communication and the Mennonite Diaspora”. We decided to attend the conference by means of online streaming. It was a very practical arrangement for us at the time.

For me personally, the significance of the efforts my parents, Cornelius and Katarina Falk put into retaining contact with members of our own family, as well as with our parents’ extended families came to mind as we listened to the various presentations given during the conference. These presentations focused on both historical methods of long distance communication, as well as those of more recent times.

When our parents and their three eldest children arrived in Canada in 1929, the children, Katie, Ben and Margaret were ages 5, 3 and 1 years of age respectively. Our respective biological grandparents were no longer alive at the time. However, we have photographs of our biological extended families, and these serve, in their own right, as a means of connection. Some of our classmates at the Rosengard School seemed to have plenty of extended family members nearby. This was the case because their ancestors had arrived in Canada in the 1870s, some 50 years before my family and others of our Rosengard community had left their Mennonite villages in Ukraine during the 1920s and into the early 1930s. In our case, our family celebrated festive occasions in various ways by the eldest members of the family coming home, as they were able, from their respective places of work in Winnipeg, or at other nearby locations. It was only at a much later time that I began to realize the enormous degree of loneliness and anxiety our parents must have felt when they were new Canadians. Those feelings must surely have been intensified as news from those who had remained in the Mennonite villages in Ukraine were never uplifting, but often very disturbing. Hopes of ever seeing anyone of them again, became more and more faint.

PHOTO GALLERY: Crowded house for Halloween Spooktacular at Clearspring Centre

New Hall Gallery exhibit a love letter to Manitoba

Artist Dawn Schmidt has an eye for light. She has the ability to look at a scene in nature or a Winnipeg street and see the way the sun hits the bows of trees or reflects in the brick work of an Exchange District building to capture a moment.

Now, people in the Southeast can get a view of Schmidt’s artwork as she is currently showing at the Steinbach Cultural Arts Centre.

“(The scene) definitely has to speak to me,” said Schmidt. “When I’m looking at nature, and you’ll see through all of my work, that (what is) particularly recognizable about my work is light, whether it’s sunlight breaking through, across the lake, or through the Prairie skies or reflections in the Winnipeg streets, or on the snow, I feel like people have recognized my work through light, through that lens.”

Schmidt’s 28-piece exhibit, Places that Stay with Us, is all about the impact certain places have in our lives and how they become a part of “our story,” according to the artist.

Trustees Friesen, Barkman head Hanover School Division board

It was the first board meeting of the newly elected trustees on Tuesday, which saw trustee Jeff Friesen elected to serve his third year in a leadership position with the board.

Friesen was elected as chair beating newly elected trustees Erin Williams, Jeremy Neufeld, and Jenn Elliot. All ballots were secret and head positions were decided by a majority of 50 percent plus one. No abstentions were permitted.

“I’m quite happy to serve the community and serve our division like this. Bring a little bit of experience and I’m hoping that again, like I was last time, that somebody will take up the reins and move into chair for next year. But I believe that a good board runs with multiple chairs and multiple experience levels,” said Friesen, adding he is happy to help new trustees by showing them the way things are done.

Elected as vice-chair was trustee Shayne Barkman. It is Barkman’s first time heading council. He beat Tess Doerksen, Cheryl Froese, Neufeld, and Williams.

PHOTO GALLERY: SEC hosts Halloween for Hunger