The Black Rod

  With 2022 receding fast in the rear-view mirror there's just enough time to ordain the annual Newsmaker of the Year. He arrived with the biggest anticipation, the biggest name, the biggest voice, the biggest lead in the polls, and the biggest hype in the press. He ended the year as the biggest loser, and that's not a reference to having the biggest waistline in the race to be mayor. Ladies and gentlemen, say goodbye to Glen Murray. Goodbye because his crash-and-burn campaign was like watching the Hindenberg drop gently from the sky before erupting in uncontrollable fire, consumed in minutes. That sucker will never fly again. With an election set for October, the press treated Murray's anticipated candidacy like the Second Coming. Murray, who was mayor from 1998 to 2004, had come home to retake the reins at city hall. When would he announce? The official announcement came on June 22.  To the press, the election was over. Nobody could beat Glen Murray. His campaig

  The reporters in the Winnipeg media were so excited they almost peed their pants on Tuesday as the results trickled in from the Kirkfield Park by-election.  This was IT. The NDP were going to take this safe Conservative riding and ignite the long-predicted sweep of city seats, foreshadowing the removal of the PC's from office in the general election next year. Poll after poll had the super-woke transexual NDP candidate in the lead. (He was a female---okay, a lesbian---before he became a man, starting his trek to masculinity, beard an all, in 2014.) With only the advance polls to be counted, the reporters were on the edges of their seats preparing their personal celebrations. But...then...the horror.  Conservative candidate Kevin Klein was declared the winner! By 160 votes. Time for the pundits and reporters to pick themselves off the ground, wipe away their tears, and dust off Plan B, which is getting a big frayed from constant use. CBC's Barley Kives went to the usua

  Two cases of blatant fake news in the Winnipeg mainstream media this week serve as prime examples of why consumers continue to abandon the MSM by the thousands. The most egregious is the smear campaign being conducted in the Manitoba Legislature by the NDP and Liberals against Kevin Klein, the Progressive Conservative candidate in the upcoming Kirkfield Park by-election. The smear was led by MLA Dougald Lamont, who has officially donned the crown as the slimiest politician in the province. Lamont is the "leader" of a rump group of 3 MLA's who sit in the far back benches under the banner of the Liberal Party of Manitoba, though they have no chance of ever becoming the government, and can't even elect enough members to qualify as a legitimate 'party' in the Legislature. Lamont has been attacking Klein for working with Peter Nygaard, the "disgraced fashion mogul" as the Winnipeg Free Press labels him. Nygaard is in jail in Toronto awaiting trial on

  By any measure, Glen Murray is unfit to be mayor of Winnipeg. He's been openly lying to voters for months about the disgraceful behaviour that caused him to be fired from his "dream job" as head of the Alberta think tank the Pembina Institute. And coupled with his thuggish attempt to intimidate the female Mayor of a small township in Ontario when he was in the Liberal cabinet, his actions speak volumes about his prejudice against women whether they are colleagues, employees or elected officials. Murray has hidden behind the fiction that he left Pembina because of "personal issues" and that any recent criticisms are just sour grapes from employees who objected to his attempt to modernize and shake up the think tank. A couple of devastating investigative reports by CBC have shown that nothing could be further from the truth. Murray's critics aren't hiding behind the usual "anonymous sources" that too many "investigative reports&quo

It's astonishing how hard the Winnipeg news media are working to sanitize the details of former mayor Glen Murray's disastrous stint in his "dream job" (before he got fired) at the Pembina Institute, an  Alberta clean-energy think tank. Is it because they think their readers/viewers can't handle the truth or that they are too sensitive to be told the gross facts? Or is this reflective of their slanted coverage of the Winnipeg mayoral candidates? Murray quit his job as an elected member of the Ontario legislature to become the executive director of the Pembina Institute because, he said at the time, he couldn't resist his "dream job" , working on environmental issues at the end of his political career. Then, only eight months later, he got the bum's rush out the door. Today Murray is painting himself as a victim. He was hired, he says, to bring fresh thinking to the think-tank but the organization couldn't handle change, so they agreed "m

What better way to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation than by injecting some truth into the Truth column. Then the Reconciliation can follow with the critics of Winnipeg Mayor candidate Don Woodstock issuing their apologies to him for telling the truth at an all-candidates forum held by the  Council of Women of Winnipeg . Woodstock stirred a mini-tempest when he addressed the topic of ways to improve safety for women. Another  candidate had raised the issue  of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and Woodstrock responded by saying  Indigenous men bore much of the blame and needed to do more to stop violence against women. The knee-jerk reaction wasn't long in coming. MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee was interviewed by CBC. "Settee said on the path toward reconciliation, Indigenous people are trying to meet non-Indigenous people halfway and don't need someone like Woodstock spreading stereotypes. "He should drop out of the race and work on h