Good friends who were once teaching colleagues of ours, live in Asheville North Carolina. Their city has been devasted by flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.  Thankfully our friends’ home was not damaged too extensively, but photos they posted on social media show the roads leading to their property are under water and blocked by fallen trees tangled in wires.  They have been without power or running water for more than a week and don’t know when it will be restored.

Our friends are teachers and the school where they work experienced severe water damage. Like other schools in Asheville theirs is closed indefinitely.

Sadly, many people in Asheville did not have flood insurance. The area was not considered at a high risk for floods.  When they purchased their insurance plans most businesses and homeowners didn’t think the extra expense for coverage in case of flooding was worth it.  Our friends say at the school where they teach the insurance will not come close to paying for the repairs to the damage caused by the hurricane and subsequent flooding.

An article in The Atlantic explains that North Carolina had already received a record amount of rain before the hurricane. Hotter than usual summer temperatures saturated the air with moisture. So when Hurricane Helene brought even more rain the river which runs through Asheville and its subsidiaries overflowed. That sent water rushing forcefully through the city, crumpling highways and causing mudslides. It all happened so quickly there was little time to prepare.

A Response to Michael Zwaagstra’s First Big Misstep by Wab Kinew

The first part of the article was good and mostly based on reality. I have my doubts about Mr. Wab Kinew torpedoing his reputation by pushing out one of their MLAs. I understand Kelvin Goertzen’s slant of the story, because he is part of the official opposition and has a need to find something to criticize. Even if I disagree somewhat, I will refrain from unnecessary criticism. Political spin is part of the game when the slant is reasonable.

How we go about criticizing our government officials is important in my opinion. Mr. Zwaagstra is touting the Christian values from time to time which I am ok with if consistency does exist. I think that forgiveness should be one of those values. Why bring up Mr. Kinew’s past? Should that burden him down in the future to prevent him from doing good in the service for the people? If he paid his dues for the wrongdoing of the past, he should be a free man to live his life like every other person in this country. Mr. Zwaagstra you did acknowledge that the premier has moved to the center. According to my thinking, that is a smart political move. A centrist government has the best chance of leading a successful term in governing. Perhaps the NDP government was correct in cleaning up early to avoid chaos and future scandals. That would be a smart political move. At least Mr. Kinew showed his humanity, courage and humility by openly apologizing for his missteps. That to me speaks volumes.  Political courage is part of the game and shows good leadership qualities. As I see it, most people would probably agree this looks like a Christian value.

In my opinion, the political conservative machinery needs a good grease job and adjustment to run smoother in a general progressive society. The friction gets too noisy at times. Holding the government accountable is OK but we do expect a robust political discourse without personal attack. Personally, I am endeavoring to refine the art of persuasion to be a better human being. Disagreement and civility can go hand in hand if we make enough effort.

Thank you for sharing the article "Author tackles opioid epidemic" in the September 26 issue. I think we need a correctional center here in Steinbach, currently youths who are committing minor crimes are sent to Winnipeg correctional centers. If they stay in our community we can visit and support them in their problems. And love and care for them.

Over the past year, I have had the wonderful honour of leading your provincial government here in Manitoba. During that time, I have seen the best of Manitobans. I had the honour of standing on the beaches of Normandy with our veterans, who as young people, fought to protect our way of life, human rights, democracy, and respect for all people. I joined students and educators as we launched a province-wide school food program that ensures every student in Manitoba has a healthy meal when they need one. I listened to the courageous voices of the family members of murder victims who stood up, demanded justice, and are now working with us to bring their loved ones home.

This year Manitobans came together in the face of great difficulties. I heard the sadness and the pain of the people in Carman who lived through terrible violence and unspeakable tragedy. I visited with people in Northern Manitoba who were evacuated from their homes because of wildfires, not knowing if they would be able to return. Our Health Minister and I travelled to hospitals and mental health facilities in every part of our province to hear directly from the workers on the front lines about what can do to fix health care, our government’s top priority. These conversations have guided our work to hire more health care workers, open ERs, and make sure you have the care you need close to home.

A year ago, we ran a positive campaign that was focused on you, the people of Manitoba. After years of division, we are building a Manitoba where no one is left behind. From fixing health care to making life more affordable, our team is bringing Manitobans together from all walks of life and creating a path to a future where every young person in Manitoba can succeed and reach their full potential.

On election night, I said your government can’t take the first step, you have to want to take it. But if you do take that step, our government will meet you. Right now, every kid can access a meal when they show up to school. We are creating a path to housing, a path to recovery, and a path to working and living the positive life that you dream of for yourself. If you take the first step, our government will be there to meet you and ensure that you get all the support you need on your path to living a good life.

This past weekend, on an exceptionally windy Manitoba evening, my wife and I had the pleasure of attending the film screening of Where the Cottonwoods Grow. The movie is the telling of the extraordinary journey of the Mennonite migration to Manitoba of 1874. It depicts the historical journey of 20,000 kilometres that many Mennonites took leaving Imperial Russia in search of a country that would honour their religious beliefs and pacifism.

We watched the screening of the film at The Krahn Barn in Neubergthal and the setting could not have been more fitting to listen to a remarkable story of faith, hardship and perseverance. The film, created by filmmaker Dale Hildebrand, relies heavily on the historical record and the stories of the early Mennonite settlers to Manitoba.

It begins with the telling of the struggle to decide whether to leave Imperial Russia where there were growing concerns that they would lose religious freedom and be required to participate in military service. It was a heart wrenching decision that separated families and split communities. Leaving most of what they had worked to establish behind, there was no assurance that the journey would be an easy one or that they would ever arrive in Canada.

In fact, the film tells the difficult story of many adults who were too sick to make the entire journey, and of the deaths of both adults and children along the way. For many Mennonites, they had never previously left their village in Russia let alone boarded the many trains, ships and steamboats that would be required to make it to southern Manitoba.

As we head back into another sitting of the Manitoba legislature, we have now reached the one-year mark of the Kinew NDP government.  The wheels are starting to come off the bus as the honeymoon comes to a crashing halt with this most recent rendition of the NDP.

We received startling revelations about the inner operations of the NDP government and the actions of the Premier himself from their own NDP colleague and MLA for Fort Garry Mark Wasyliw.  It was revealed in recent weeks that Premier Kinew has generated a toxic environment of disrespect, bullying, and demeaning treatment of MLA’s, Ministers, and staff within the NDP government. We continue to hear reports of assaults and intimidating behavior when during debate MLA Wasyliw spoke from the heart about the abuse, he experienced at the hand of Wab Kinew.

Upon hearing the many revelations about the troubled internal workings of the NDP government our PC team brought forward a motion calling for an independent investigation of these allegations and the harassment taking place within government ranks.  We believe it is important that these issues be brought to light and if the Premier is found culpable, he is held to account for his behaviour and actions. An ethics investigation is vital to restoring confidence and ensuring our leaders uphold the highest standards that everyday Manitobans would be held to at their own workplaces.

This dysfunction is leading to the NDP’s failure to make progress on their $3 billion in campaign promises and commitments. For example, since the Premier’s re-announcement last March, no money has flowed towards the new Lac du Bonnet Personal Care Home and its construction has been stalled under his NDP government. Despite many promises by the NDP, crime and random attacks have increased across Manitoba, emergency room wait times are getting longer, and grocery prices remain high with no sign of them lowering.

After nine years of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, faith communities in Canada are under threat.

The combination of Justin Trudeau’s crusade against traditional values, free speech, and religious freedoms coupled with his failure to condemn attacks on Christians and Jews have led to a 251 percent increase in hate crimes against religious communities in Canada.

Since 2021, 112 churches have been vandalized, desecrated and burned down by arsonists.

One hundred and twelve churches!

When it comes to the environment, there’s a lot of meaningless virtue signaling. Perhaps the most obvious example is the federal government’s ban on single-use plastics.

Thanks to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canadians are drinking milkshakes through disintegrating paper straws, carrying groceries home in overpriced cloth bags, and eating ice cream with thin wooden spoons. These actions are supposed to help save the planet.

However, plastic bans hurt the environment rather than help it. For example, a 2018 analysis by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency showed that when you take the entire life cycle of bags into account, shoppers would need to reuse a cotton bag more than 7,100 times before it becomes more environmentally friendly than a single-use plastic bag.

That number jumps to an eye-popping 20,000 times for organic cotton bags. I doubt that anyone has used the same cotton bag more than 20,000 times.