Next time you're in Calgary airport and looking for your gate to get home to Brandon, things will look a little different! Actually, it looks amazing! That "A1" gate that leads to your YBR flight is now much more than a cement hallway and an auxiliary walk on gate.  Less than a month ago, Westjet opened their new A1-A5 gate wing. It has a plethora of comfortable chairs, a little kiosk to buy snacks and magazines, plus new washrooms.  We were there just after it was open and travellers were reluctant to make their way past the balloons and down the long, cold, cement hall. Indeed, even once you got to the A1 sign, nothing looked different. The key was to go 10 steps further and look to the right side. The new waiting room was huge and heated.  The washrooms were equally fabulous. If you recall the small, worn, and very busy washrooms next to the food court by the "old A1" you will be very impressed by the new washrooms down the hall. I wasn't sure people would believe me and since I was the only person around, I snapped a photo for my readers.  Next time you're waiting at YYC for a flight back to YBR, definitely go down the hall to the new waiting area, and go early. When you leave that main concourse, it will feel like adding a peaceful and exclusive 30 minutes to your vacation.  

25 years is really an eternity in today’s day and age for being married – working at the same job – or operating a locally based charity. Brandon’s Dreams for Kids has done that by existing over 25 years in Western Manitoba. According to one of the founders Ron Ball the key to the future is being able to generate funds on a annual basis. “ Our board is very active in the community doing various fund-raising ideas”. From Day 1 we were lucky have people like McDonalds come on board and Gary Buckley that gave us instant credibility. According to Ron Ball and Borden Hadley McDonald's is a key piece to where Dreams for Kids is today. McHappy Day and the Annual McDonald s Classic Golf Tournament are two of our greatest fundraisers throughout the year. Ball and Hadley both joke that when they walk into local business either the business owner is ducking to hide from them,or is going to grab the cheque book. The Brandon Wheat Kings Goals for Kids program will raise on average $10,000 dollars per season and has generated close to to $300,000 dollars since the program was created. Plus there are other amazing stories like creating a Children’s Wing at the Brandon General Hospital. Dreams was able to donate $150,000 dollars and that was used to leverage Government funding of 2.8 million dollars. All amazing local success stories. BDNMB – so walk me through the process how does a family apply for assistance or help? Ron Ball – most of the time people come to us through referral’s from friends and family members and that is where everything starts. BDNMB – how many families will Dreams for Kids assist on an annual basis? Borden Hadley – we would have about 40 – 50 families that would get assistance per year. BDNMB – I will direct this question to Angie what is the key to keeping Dreams for Kids being successful? Angie Ball – We always need more awareness and social media is a huge factor in spreading news. BDNMB – Being a local charity is that an advantage, so to speak, when you go up against larger national charities. Ron Ball – Some people don’t realize we are locally based. BDNMB – Question for both Ron and Borden would you hope that Dreams for Kids will be your legacy? Ron and Borden – Yes for sure. BDNMB – Charities are always looking for new people is it safe to say that Dreams is looking for "new blood”? Angie and Ron – Yes for sure we are and they can access our website or Facebook page to contact us. To access Dreams for Kids http://www.wdfk.ca/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Westman-Dreams-For-Kids-119082778156670/?fref=ts Pictures from this years golf tournament. Olympians at the 25th Anniversary of the McDonalds classic! That's pretty cool. Reid Carruthers and Jared Funk.

Hey, anybody up for another election? No, there won’t be endless TV ads during the suppertime news. And there are no debates scheduled that I have heard of. Plus, the only blight of election signs are in the city’s East End ward of Riverview. It’s about the by-election on May 18 to fill the seat vacated by Vanessa Hamilton, who resigned to run for the provincial Liberals in Brandon East. where she placed a comparatively decent third. I’ve reviewed materials about by the three candidates online and read/listened to their comments in the media. What I find interesting is the lack of specific ward issues being discussed. Perhaps it’s because none of the candidates live in the ward. Or perhaps it’s because Mayor Rick Chrest and his council have been doing such a good job. Sure, there are always residents who have complaints about snow clearing, or damage caused by snow plows to sidewalks or boulevard greenery. And parts of the ward do have some drainage issues as there are a few hilly areas. But with tax increases under control — save for the steep increases in water bills flowing out over the next few years — and as spring has sprung providing a general sense of optimism with citizens, all three candidates have opted to talk about general policy themes. And also explain how connected they are to Riverview. Now I have an issue writing about this by-election. Not because I don’t care about it, rather I have a very real conflict of interest as candidate Glen Parker was a co-worker of mine when I was at the Brandon Sun. We worked very well together as senior managers and I count him as a friend to this day. I don’t know Tyson Tame all that well, but I did closely observe his failed run for Riverview in 2014. At that time he was recruited by some unknown folks (yeah, I’m pretty sure I know who they are) who didn’t want to see left-leaning Hamilton win the seat. Tame fared poorly in a major debate at the East End Community Centre. But he only lost the election by 49 votes. Obviously if one of the two men win, it will reduce the number of female councillors to two. The political balance around the council table will also skew to the right just a bit if either of the men win. If Delvina Kejic wins, the gender and political balance will remain the same. And there will be two Aboriginal councillors.    So to be fair, I’ll offer condensed bullet points on each candidate, sourced from their Facebook pages or profiles posted on the city’s website. Without my comments. Or any editing of their writing. • Delvina Kejic: Brandon has been home for 33 years where I raised my 6 children and 5 of my 6 grandchildren reside. My home land is Fisher River Cree Nation. I am retired from Brandon School Division after working for 24 years in varied capacities with provincial funded projects. Policy ideas I am committed to: Increase voting numbers of grass root people. They truly are the stakeholders. By empowering voters we grow towards a better government; Increase accessibility, develop new endeavours and incentives in areas of housing, playgrounds and public places for all ages of people with varied levels of disability directly in Riverview Ward. Brandon is changing. We have a beautiful city and we all talk about inclusion, equity, diversity, culture and change. By electing me I can bring more of this to the table in many stories as to the good of it but more so about the how to's and whys in a bigger, experiential way, and if elected the table becomes more “visibly” inclusive, equitable. • Glen Parker: Having lived in Brandon since 1969, going to school and growing up in the city’s East End, Glen is extremely familiar with the Riverview ward and all it has to offer. Glen and his wife Shannon have two sons whose early childhoods were also spent in the ward. Both attended Riverview School and later in life both returned to live in the area. Glen is currently employed by The Brandon Sun where he is the sales and marketing director. Previous work experience includes well over a decade in the financial services industry. His employment experience provides him with a very high comfort level in dealing with large dollar values. Glen manages multi-million-dollar budgets on a daily basis. This experience would be a valuable asset in the role of city councillor. Glen has often publicly stated that he believes we should all be good citizens by volunteering when we can. His resume of volunteer work and community service is extensive. Glen doesn’t think it’s the role of a new councillor to speak on policy issues without being privy to all the information relative to specific issues. Rather he would just assure residents that he would be available, open to suggestions and would provide good leadership for Riverview. • Tyson Tame: My name is Tyson Tame, and I am running to become your next city councillor in the Riverview Ward. In my professional career, I am a real estate advisor/partner at Royal Lepage. I grew up in Brandon in the South Center and Green Acres Wards. I am married to Tina, who is the member services director at the YMCA, together we have 3 children, 2 of which are adults. My hobbies are writing, long poetry memorization, public speaking, and I sing and act in community musical theatre regularly. I also serve on the Brandon General Museum and Archives board as the fundraising chair. As a city councillor you are one of 11 votes in council chambers, very little can be accomplished without the cooperation of others. I feel confident in my relationships with the Mayor and the current council members and I feel my interpersonal skills will be an asset in forwarding the voice of the constituents of the Riverview Ward. My goal is to be the most hands on councillor that Ward #9 has ever had. The byelection takes place on May 18. An advance poll will be held on May 12 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the main foyer of Brandon City Hall. That’s why I’m running this ward profile today, as many people now choose to vote in advance. On by-election day itself, stations will be open for voting between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. at: Riverview School, 1105 Louise Ave. East; King George School; and 535 Park St; Lions Manor, 35 Victoria Ave. East. OK. For readers who have made it this far, I’ll give you a bit of a reward. I’m known to be a guy who makes comments and stands by them. People don’t just read me just for information. They want to see what my opinion is. So with my aforementioned conflict of interest in mind, I’m going to offer my thoughts on who will be the next councillor for Riverview Ward. Glen Parker has deep, deep roots in the ward. He is also extremely well known for his 23 years as a board member for Hockey Brandon, 17 years as president of Hockey Brandon, 15 years as a board member for Hockey Manitoba. He has also coached 24 youth hockey teams; coached Brandon Minor Baseball and Youth Soccer. And here’s the kicker — he volunteered for the East End Community Centre for more than 25 years and is currently a board member. The EECC is the heart and soul of the East End. Interestingly, longtime EECC volunteer and board member Peter Nissen has been sharing Tyson Tame’s posts of Facebook. And none from the other candidates. Tame does have the advantage of knowing the ins and outs of the ward from his run in 2014. While he has a fairly high public profile as a realtor, he doesn’t have the years of working with a couple of generations of families in youth sports. That gives Parker an advantage as he will personally know a lot of people who answer the door as he canvasses the ward. Delvina Kejic, originally from Fisher River Cree Nation, is an unknown factor. She is definitely playing the race card: “I believe that based on my heritage…” and lists her community involvement, in part, as being on: the provincial Aboriginal Education Directorate Council; the city’s Homelessness Committee; and the Community Weekly Powwow Club. She also coordinated the provincially funded Building Student Success with Aboriginal Parents at École New Era School. The self-described “retired” project co-ordinator, who worked at New Era for more than two decades, told the Brandon Sun she hopes to bring a different perspective to the council table. Kejic will have a hard time getting her name known. She also isn’t running as large a campaign as the other two candidates (one sign of that is the shortage of signage) Curiously, Kejic set up a GoFundMe crowdfunding page last November to help stop the bank from seizing her house in Rosser Ward. She claimed to need $5,000 and had raised about half of that in a couple of months. “I have had a sudden loss of income, very unexpected with a job I have given heart and soul to for 23 years in the lives of people and community,” she wrote on the page. “I am pursuing reasons as to why the sudden change. “I have (fallen) behind in my mortgage, taxes, day to day expenses. I limit my food and am selling what I can to help, but not fast enough. I plea for your HELP to keep the bank from taking it. Change is never easy and sometimes is completely unexpected and hits with a BIG domino effect.” I certainly can sympathize with one suddenly losing a well-paying job after working somewhere for a long time. But the fact she is “pursuing reasons as to why the sudden change,” is curious. A “sudden loss” of a job isn’t necessarily the same as taking a voluntarily retirement from a position to enjoy one’s golden years. Sure, you can say you’ve retired from a profession, in social settings, to gloss over the complicated details as to why you’re unemployed. But when one runs for public office, people like me look for inconsistencies in candidates’ biographies. Their financial status and personal lives are also open for examination as they will be in charge of the public purse. But I digress. The Riverview Ward has been traditionally very left wing. This will help Kejic. There are a number of Aboriginal residents, but not as many as in the neighbouring Rosser Ward. Pundits have noted the federal Liberals mobilized First Nations voters, with some of that momentum pushing into the provincial election. Could that help Kejic in a city by-election? Meh. Brandon East went decidedly right in the provincial election, throwing out long-serving NDP MLA Drew Caldwell in favour of Progressive Conservative Len Isleifson. But will that have any impact in the Riverview by-election? Likely not. The only neighbourhoods who remained NDP in Brandon East in the provincial election were in the Riverview Ward area. The voter turnout for civic by-elections is historically very low. In 2013, John LoRegio won with the support of 51.6 per cent of Meadows ward voters. But that was of a total of 616 people — a turnout of just 19.3 per cent. So I think it will come down to who knows how many people in the ward. And who will be able to get those folks out to vote. Tame will benefit from his exposure in the 2014 tilt. He will have a lot of name recognition. Parker will benefit from his years of volunteer work and having many friends and acquaintances in the ward. The residents of Riverview have some interesting choices to make. And I hope many of them get over their voting fatigue and get out to vote in this by-election. Who should win the by-election? Council could use some more diversity and Kejic could bring some new perspectives to City Hall. Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Rosser) is Métis — and he also played the race card in the general election in 2014 — but I think a full-blooded First Nations woman could be of benefit to the decision-making process at the largely middle-aged white-guy table. Who will win the by-election? I think it will be a close race between Tame and Parker, who are both running well-funded campaigns with help from volunteers. I will give the edge to Parker. That unless the Riverview left organizes itself, as it has in the past, and also helps to mobilize the Aboriginal vote. Then we could see an upset victory for Kejic. It’s no doubt that Kejic could use the income, but could the political newcomer be an effective councillor?  

It came four hours late, but I did have a phone interview with Cliff Cullen, once a comparatively low-key Progressive Conservative Opposition MLA, now minister of growth, enterprise and trade (and labour) in the new Brian Pallister government. The Spruce Woods rep, who lives in Glenboro, is also now the de facto voice at the cabinet table for Brandon, as our two Tory MLAs were passed over for a seat in the pared-down 12-member inner circle. The Spruce Woods constituency encircles the Wheat City, so we’re kinda like the hole in the doughnut. However, Cullen has been spotted frequently in Brandon, is completely up to speed on the issues facing us that fall under the province’s purview and says he will work closely with Brandon East MLA-elect Len Isleifson and Brandon West MLA-elect Reg Helwer. “We have two really good representatives in Brandon,” Cullen said Wednesday, the day after he was sworn in. “I know the premier will have additional roles for those two fellas once they are sworn in (May 11). They will be an important part of our team. “And that’s really the way that we look at it. We’re all part of the same team trying to accomplish some good things for Manitoba. However, neither Isleifson or Helwer were on the list of six legislative assistants appointed last week to assist ministers. Cullen’s LA is Kelly Bindle, MLA-elect for Thompson. The position of legislative assistant, says a government release, is filled by MLAs in caucus in order to support cabinet ministers and also provide the assigned MLAs with experience associated to cabinet. The list also included many of the demographic and geographic voids in the cabinet. As far as lists go, Cullen wasn’t any pundit’s pick that I saw as being a potential cabinet minister. Helwer was considered the natural choice. I asked Cullen how he felt when he got the call from the premier on Monday. “I was somewhat surprised, but I’ve been around here a long time and had a lot of different roles and built a lot of relationships over time,” he said. As for pressing issues in Spruce Woods, they are primarily crumbling roads and health care — or “the lack thereof” — for the latter. In Brandon, infrastructure issues also dominate. Including the Daly Overpass rebuild. Cullen gets an extra $50,930 on top of the regular MLA’s pay of $93,025. He also gets extra staff. And a really nice office in the Manitoba Legislature. Cullen also has a new deputy minister, Jamie Wilson, the former, Treaty Relations Commissioner of Manitoba. He was one of four deputy ministers that Pallister moved in quickly to replace existing NDP hires. *** Brandonites will also have direct access to government via the Westman Regional Cabinet Office. What’s that you ask? It’s located in the provincial building on Ninth Street and has traditionally been a low-key operation. But there’s no reason it couldn’t be made more prominent and accessible to constituents. The office, which traditionally employs two people, was first opened in 1989 by former premier Gary Filmon. The first director of that office was veteran newscaster Ron Arnst, who has served as a press secretary to cabinet since he left CKLQ 880 earlier that year. At the time, Arnst was charged with acting as a local liaison for groups and individuals dealing with government and was to be available to assist organizers of community projects in gaining access to appropriate government services. I’m not too sure how that office was used under the NDP regime. I know the staff did organize media appearances of ministers and the premier, but the new Tory government is free to structure it as it pleases. And that could go a long way to soothe the feeling of Tory voters who feel that Brandon has been left on the outside looking in again of the cabinet room. (The photos here include one I took of Pallister greeting Cullen at a pre-election rally at Len Isleifson’s campaign office.The other is a screen grab from CBC of Cullen being sworn in by Manitoba Lt.-Gov. Janice Filmon.)

Canadian Wrestling's Elite returns to Brandon, Manitoba on Thursday, May 26th and returning in a big way with the "500 Ticket" Fundraising Challenge! The return to Brandon finally answers the demand of an all ages, family friendly event in Brandon and with that CWE management is partnering up with the Assiniboine Community College Athletic Team to help raises funds for their department. If the joint effort of CWE and ACC sells 500 tickets to the event Canadian Wrestling's Elite will donate $1500 to the ACC Athletics Team. This donation will go towards the recruitment of new student athletes to Assiniboine Community College. Student athletes dedicate anywhere from 6-20 hours a week to their sport on top of full time classes and the requirement to maintain good academic standing as a student. The opportunity to play sport while at post-secondary gives students an opportunity to learn valuable employment and life skills like time management, teamwork, communication and leadership. Come out and enjoy some great wrestling and support Brandon's athletic future! Thursday May 26th- Brandon, MB Location: Assiniboine Community College (1430 Victoria Ave. East) Time: VIP/Meet & Greet 6pm, Doors Open 6:30pm, Bell time 7pm Tickets: VIP Front Row Access Meet & Greet $21, General Admission $16 in advance, $19 at the door. Advance Tickets Available At: Eye Opener Book Store (314 10th St.) Advance Tickets Available at: cwetickets.com For full event information visit www.cwecanada.ca